A dark cloud and a bright sun
by ArgentumVulpes
Summary: From the first moment that he noticed the blond boy, Sasuke has always held a special interest in Naruto. However, as time passed his curiosity grew into much more than mere interest in the foxy blond. Will Sasuke be able to tell Naruto how he really feels about him? SasuNaru Yaoi
1. Chapter 1

I felt like writing something else, and so this story -consisting of (just) 3 chapters- was created.

Summary: Sasuke has, from the moment he really noticed the boy, always held some interest in Naruto, his life and his many layers. As time passes, his curiosity has grown into much more than just finding the blond interesting. Will he be able to tell Naruto how he really feels about him?

Warning: beware for my imagination… oh, and boyxboy, a.k.a yaoi :3

Disclaimer: Naruto and all its character belong to Kishimoto-sensei!

-oXo-

Edit: Thank you MS3923 for beta-ing ;)

-oXo-

**A Dark Cloud and a Bright Sun**

Chapter 1:

_Leaning against a wall, looking around the corner, he stared at the blond boy standing in the middle of the street. One hand on his chest, his narrow eyes, looking almost angrily, followed every motion that the boy made. _

_Every detail. He noticed every movement the boy made with his eyes, counting every blink, the movement of his lips, his mouth, the way his loud voice was shaped into letters – words; empty sentences. _

_His strangely whiskered cheeks were slightly red from all the commotion he was making. His eyes sparkling brightly, wanting to be understood; to be noticed, but when looked at from up close didn't sparkle at all. They were empty to the people who really looked into them. _

_His bright yellow -actually way too yellow to be called blond- hair almost shone in the dark setting. Rain made the normally standing up spiky strands fall down around his face. It made his empty words, (which they were in reality) even though they were meant to be noticed, drown in the rain. _

_His clothes, sticking against his skin, almost made his thin figure stand out. Fortunately for the boy they were too wide, which made him look small, but hid his actual skinny figure perfectly._

_The prying eyes of the dark haired boy had never seen something so beautiful in his life, not ever. He had no idea what had made him stop here, watch this sad event in front of him, but all he could do was watch, and admire. He didn't notice his clothes getting soaked; all he saw was a small ray of light between the dark clouds that let water rain down upon them._

_The screaming of the blond boy, echoing against the walls, became incoherent sounds by the sound of the rain; not to be related to words ever again. However, his insults -his begging for attention- were still perfectly understandable to the person standing next to him, whose angry face would have frightened the toughest of men._

_A hand was raised. The blond boy noticed too late. A slap in the face, turning his striped cheek red, made him stumble to the ground._

"_Stop your ridiculous cries! You stupid child, go back to that stinking hole you call your room and be quiet."_

_The woman, anger written all over her face, gave the boy a final deadly glare before turning around and calmly walking away into a well lit room that was reflected onto the street._

_The blond boy brought his hand up, to rub the red skin on his face. Between the rain dripping down his face, tears fell down -nearly unnoticed- mixing with the water from the sky. His fringe covered his eyes as he bowed his head to the ground._

_Sasuke turned around, he had seen enough. Silently he jumped away, never to be noticed by the young blond._

-x-

"Ne, ne, what are we going to do today?" Naruto darted around the tall silver-haired man in their midst. Enthusiastically he kept moving around the man, much to a certain pink-haired girl's annoyance (the raven was looking away).

"Naruto, you're making me dizzy."

"Ah, sorry, Sakura-chan." Naruto stopped running around, and instead started to skip, still questioning the man who was ignoring him.

"Aren't you a bit too old to skip around?" Sakura asked the blond boy.

"Never," he grinned at her over his shoulder.

"I believe 17 years is a bit too old to skip," Sakura pressed.

"That's only for those who feel that there is a boundary at a certain age that doesn't permit you to skip anymore."

"Eh, then I do," Sakura commented.

"That's sad then, Sakura-chan, because there really isn't," Naruto told her, still looking up at the masked man beside him, hoping to get his attention in some way.

Sakura's mouth curved up, shaking her head. "I do hope we're not going to practice hand to hand combat _again_," she sighed, just thinking of last week made her want to go home again.

"I told you we would do something different today," a lazy voice sounded.

"Then what is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto immediately asked now their sensei was finally opening his mouth.

"You actually were supposed to have classes today," Kakashi answered lazily.

"So, what does that mean…? That today we will have class … from you?" Naruto asked, not liking the idea. Immediately he started looking around, trying to find out if Kakashi was taking them to some class room nearby. "But we will have classes tomorrow, so…" Naruto tried to argue. He was still wasn't satisfied, even though there didn't seem to be any classrooms nearby.

The jounin teacher turned a page, pretending to be reading, not responding.

"He's not going to tell, so just shut up, dobe."

Naruto turned around to Sasuke, heaving his fist while he stopped walking. "Teme!" He clenched his fist. He was obviously thinking of something else to say, but couldn't come up with anything.

Sasuke ignored the insult, but noticed Naruto's struggle to find the right words. "You should rest your brain before you short circuit the very few connections it has made."

Naruto knew it was an insult, even though he didn't quite understand the entire meaning of the sentence. He opened his mouth, but then noticed Sasuke's smirk, which made him swallow his words, and instead made him jump onto Sasuke.

Sasuke noticed just in time, swiftly sidestepping the pouncing boy. Naruto almost fell onto his face, being able to keep his balance just in time. He swung his fist around at the raven-haired boy.

"Ah, we're here," Kakashi said, ignoring the fight going on behind his back.

Sasuke caught Naruto's arm, forced it onto his back and pressed him down, making him face the ground. Then he sat on his back.

Wincing, Naruto tried to push Sasuke off his back, but failed miserably.

"What are you planning to make us do at this place?" Sakura asked, looking around the training field that was unknown to her. If they would train, they could have gone to their own training field.

"Today is-" Kakashi stopped, turning around to find the two boys on the ground, still struggling with each other. "Sasuke, let go of Naruto and come over here. The both of you; I'm not planning on explaining this twice."

With a straight face, Sasuke looked up and let Naruto's arm go. Calmly he stood up, dusted off his white calf length shorts, and walked over to Kakashi with his hands in his pockets.

Naruto angrily looked up when Sasuke walked away in a way like nothing had happened. Grumbling softly he lifted himself from the ground. Dirt still on his clothes and face he walked over to his team, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Kakashi didn't wait for Naruto to finally catch up, and started explaining. "Today is theory day," Naruto sighed deeply, "and we will be learning all about nature."

Silence fell. Only Naruto's silent disappointed, mutters about it being theory day, could be heard. Besides still having classes, they also had so-called 'theory days' with their team, and 'practice days' for team training. All this would result in being able to get better missions.

"Nature?" Sakura repeated. "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what the word says." Kakashi lazily pointed to the forest behind them.

"Trees?" Naruto asked; his eyes thin lines as he dumbly stared at the greenery.

"Yes, trees." Kakashi looked down into his orange book.

"You mean… you are going to teach us all about trees?" Naruto asked again.

"Yes, Naruto. I think you are on a roll today, keep up the good work," the adult said without emotion.

Naruto pulled up his nose, not liking the way his sensei had just said that sentence. "Why?" He asked, looking up through narrowed eyes. Sakura looked up too, even though she already knew the answer.

"You want to be ninjas," was the simple answer. It wasn't the answer anyone had expected.

Sasuke crossed his arms, looking over to the forest. All different kinds of trees were growing on that land. He understood what Kakashi was up to.

"And what does learning about trees-" Naruto started, only to be interrupted by Sakura.

"Naruto, as a ninja, what's the thing we do most?"

"Boring D-rank mission?" he asked.

Sakura hit him over the head. "We move through different kinds of scenery. Depending on the mission we have to blend in, stand out, make traps, look out for traps, erase tracks, make false ones, conceal our chakra, and so on. The environment can do a lot of work for a ninja, but then of course one has to know how to use it."

"Wow, Sakura-chan, that's amazing," Naruto said, still rubbing his head.

"So, let's start theory day then," Kakashi said, walking away.

Naruto quickly walked up to Sakura, walking beside her. "You came up with that answer on the spot?" he asked admiringly.

Sakura nodded. "It's quite obvious."

"Well, you were the smartest of our class." Naruto grinned.

Sakura looked over to Sasuke. "I wasn't really."

Stopping beside the first tree they ran into, Kakashi leaned against it. "What kind of tree is this?" he asked, not even looking up from his novel.

Sasuke sighed, foreseeing a boring afternoon. Naruto peered up the tree, not a clue of its name, but Sakura immediately opened her mouth. "An oak tree, everyone knows that. It's a deciduous tree, producing seed in the form of small almost egg-shaped, brown nuts called acorns. The leafs-" Sakura went on as if she was reading a book, that she had learned by heart, out loud.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. This would be a _very_ long day. As Sakura finished her book knowledge, Kakashi added some strategic information about the tree. Since it was such obvious information to Sasuke, he decided his day could be better spent. His narrow eyes turned over to Naruto, looking at the small boy. His lips were slightly apart as he tried to remember everything what he was told. Sometimes he softly repeated certain words. Sasuke liked that. There was still dirt on his face, smudging his whisker marks. His blue eyes turned to everything that was being noted or said.

Slowly time passed, and they went on to the next tree. Sasuke didn't even really notice what he was doing, automatically following his team mates. All he cared about was watching Naruto. He had to make sure however, that no one noticed him staring. Luckily that wasn't very hard. Every time they moved on, Naruto had a way of stopping exactly in his line of view. And the further they moved on, the deeper they moved into the forest, the darker it got. No one could really see his already dark eyes move behind the long, raven bangs.

Sasuke had all the time to study everything about Naruto, and he was actually disappointed when Kakashi told them they would now move out of the forest to take a break. The morning had past a lot faster than Sasuke had anticipated.

He would soon notice the rest of the day would pass even faster.

Walking away from the training field with his team, Sakura suddenly clung to his arm. "You want to go get something to eat?"

Sasuke tried to ignore Sakura. Why couldn't she see he had no interest in her at all… ever! Maybe because the only thing he saw was Naruto, but he always made sure no one noticed. He had a crush on the stupid blond for quite a while now, but somehow -he himself wasn't even sure why - he was afraid to tell anyone about it. He had never given away any hint of his feeling. Maybe because he wasn't used doing that; maybe because he was afraid of the consequences… maybe because he was afraid Naruto didn't feel the same way.

Naruto always happily conversed with Sakura, making advances at her that no one could ignore. He easily talked to Hinata, who he took out to dinner more and more often. Naruto obviously wasn't into the Uchiha. All he did was yell at Sasuke and fight with him; all Sasuke that was to Naruto was a rival. Naruto had no idea what he did to the raven.

It was strange; one would think the fighting and yelling would upset Sasuke. On the contrary, it made Sasuke feel happy. It was the only way he could express himself to the blond, talk to him, touch him. It was complicated, he knew, but he couldn't help it… He didn't want to change anything between them, except for Naruto to know… to like him too; to have those feeling returned to him.

"Hn," Sasuke said in frustration, but Sakura took it as a yes to her question.

"Ah, why today? We could have gone all together," Naruto complained.

"How so?" Sakura asked.

"Hinata asked if I wanted to come over today," the blond said almost nervously.

"That's great isn't it?" Sakura asked, happily. In the back of her mind she already knew that this meant she would be alone with Sasuke.

"Oh, yeah, I wasn't complaining about that, I just thought…" his voice died down and he shrugged.

"Well, see you tomorrow then, Naruto."

"Yes, bye Sakura-chan," Naruto turned his head to Sasuke, "teme," he muttered, giving him a foul look.

They parted ways.

Sasuke almost had to drag his feet to the café where Sakura was taking him. He would have left, gone away, if Sakura had not locked her arm with his in a way that he couldn't escape.

Sitting at a small table, thinking how he could get away as fast as possible, Sakura watched him. Sasuke didn't notice for quite some time, until he felt her eyes almost burn into his skin. He looked up at her. "What?"

Sakura smiled kindly and shrugged shyly. "It's just that you more or less always seem to frown. You seem to get lost in thought every now and then. You are always so quiet; I was just wondering what you were thinking."

Sasuke stared at her. She had noticed something? "I'm not frowning all day, maybe it just looks that way."

Sakura giggled. Then she looked up into his eyes, her face kind and serious. "You can tell me if you don't feel like eating together today."

Sasuke was surprised by her words. He always thought that she tried him to like her in every possible way, without giving him any choice. "What would make you say that?" Sasuke asked, picking up a menu, looking down at it.

Sakura's face fell. "It's your choice to make; this is _your_ life. What did you think? That I was forcing you?"

Sasuke saw she was actually hurt that he thought that. He didn't really know what to answer. Still looking at the menu, he lowered it a little.

Sakura noticed the motion, he was thinking, listening. "Of course I would like for you to… like me too. Maybe I exaggerate a bit sometimes, trying to make you like me, but I can't help it." She made sure Sasuke looked up at her. "Okay, maybe a lot, but I have never heard you tell me to stop, or that you don't like it."

Sasuke began to feel slightly uncomfortable, of course not showing this to his female teammate. He had always kept his attention on Naruto, that all he could think of Sakura's actions as annoying. He had hoped she would understand the message he had been sending her for more than five years now. He had never thought that she was actually just doing (or trying to do) the same thing he did (but couldn't).

"You want to go home?" Sakura asked softly, trying to figure out what her words had done to Sasuke.

"No, it's fine, I'll stay." Sasuke lifted up the menu again. With a last glance at her, he turned his eyes to the card in his hands. "Just don't expect me to be very talkative."

Sakura smiled a simple smile. "I wouldn't expect you to be more talkative all of a sudden." She picked up a menu too, looking down at it. Her heart was rapidly beating, not believing what had been said… that Sasuke had talked to her. Sasuke would never know what he had done to the girl's heart.

-x-

Having split up on their way home, Sasuke not finding it necessary to bring Sakura to her house (they were ninjas, she could defend herself very well), he made his way to his apartment, taking a shortcut through the park. On his way he suddenly noticed two figures creeping through the bushes.

Ignoring the two, Sasuke walked on, until…

"Naruto-kun," a soft and kind voice whispered. "Are you sure?"

Sasuke stopped and silently moved behind a tree, an oak he noted unconsciously.

"Why not?" Naruto's voice whispered back. "It's a clear sky tonight; we'll be able to see the stars very clearly." His hand was holding that of the girl beside him.

Sasuke could actually hear Hinata fiddle. "You remembered," she said softly.

Naruto grinned. "You said you like to look at the starry sky."

Hinata blushed, and even as it was dark, the nearly full moon made it visible for two people to notice.

"Eh… It's really not that special," Naruto mumbled, unsure of what to do. However, he had no idea what the real reason of Hinata's blush was, until he blinked and found her lips upon his.

In an automatic reaction, Naruto pulled back while pushing Hinata away. "W-what are you doing?" he asked, startled by her action. He had no idea how to act on it.

Hinata's blush immediately became a deeper shade of pink. "I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't think… I thought…" she turned away, loosening herself from Naruto's arms. "I'm sorry!" She said while running off.

That was not what Naruto had intended. "Wait, Hinata, I-" He wanted to run after her, but stopped when he noticed some movement to his side. Worriedly he looked around. "Who's there?" He stepped back.

Sasuke cursed himself for having moved when he thought Naruto wanted to run after the Hyuuga girl. He wasn't sure what he had intended to do; he certainly couldn't stop Naruto from following the girl. He had no real reason of doing that, plus Naruto wouldn't understand why he would have done so even if he had.

Pressing himself against the tree, hoping Naruto would think he had heard a squirrel or something, he kept quiet. However, when he didn't hear any movement coming from Naruto he started to wonder if the blond was still there. Had he not noticed the blond move away in his panic of being discovered?

Silence, all around, but Sasuke didn't dare to move just yet.

And then he heard it, Naruto was still there. Leafs shifted and Naruto sighed. "I'm so stupid." He kicked at the dead leafs on the ground. "Who moves away from a kiss, asking 'what are you doing'?" Naruto hunched down, his arms folding around his knees as he looked down at the, with leafs covered, ground.

Sasuke's heart had just skipped a beat. What if… what if Naruto didn't know if he liked Hinata or not? What if… he still had a chance?

He moved his head so he could listen to Naruto, but could only hear his soft, slightly erratic breathing.

This could be his chance; an opportunity. He should walk over to Naruto; maybe try to cheer him up? Could he do that?

Collecting all his courage, Sasuke tried to think of what to say. He wasn't really much of a talker, let alone someone that asks how people were feeling, to explain their feelings to him.

Finally, deciding to just pretend he was making an evening stroll, he took a deep breath before he would move away from the tree.

And then Naruto stood up. Hearing the movement, Sasuke stiffened up, not daring to come out suddenly, right at that moment. Before he knew what had happened, Naruto had jumped away.

Turning to the sound, walking around the tree, Sasuke just saw Naruto's back disappear into the night.

Not able to breathe, he just stared into the darkness, mindless.

"Who's stupid now?"

-x-

_Glaring around the schoolyard, hidden behind his dark bangs, he watched two girls sitting on the swing, laughing at each other. They were clearly ignoring the nine year old boy beside the swing._

_Ever since that night a couple of months ago, Sasuke had been trying to find out more about the blond boy, who was now glaring at the two girls with a mixture of sadness and anger. He had asked the girls if he could take a turn too, but had been ignored the entire time._

_Sasuke had come to understand that the boy, who was actually in the same class as he did, was also the same boy he had never paid attention too. A boy he had always thought to be annoying; an idiot. _

_Naruto had never been popular with anyone, but now that Sasuke had taken an interest in him, he had come to understand his idiocy, acting stupidly, had a reason. He had much more layers than anyone else; he was much more complex than anyone could ever know or find out upon first sight._

_He hadn't figured out all the layers yet, but Sasuke was sure even with as little as he knew about the boy, he already was much closer to the boy than any other person on this world. Maybe that was what interested Sasuke about the boy, his layers, the secrecy; he wasn't sure._

_He was ready for the next step. He already knew more about the boy than any other; now he was ready to present himself to the boy, to make him notice the Uchiha. If Naruto would notice him, and maybe make more than eye contact with him, Sasuke's interest would get another dimension, he was sure of it. _

_Stepping away from the school building, making himself visible, Sasuke walked over to the swings. Brushing off a few girls on his way by giving them an angry gaze, Sasuke found himself beside the boy of his interest. _

_Arrogantly he stepped forward. "I want to swing," he more or less demanded._

_The two girls looked up, noticing it was Sasuke, and quickly left the swings._

"_Of course you can," the one with brown hair tied into two pigtails said._

"_You can take mine," the other girl said._

_Sasuke ignored both and sat down on the swing. Immediately the two girls began fighting who could have the swing beside Sasuke._

_Sasuke looked over to Naruto, wanting to tell him he should take the other swing, when he noticed the blond was being pushed to the ground by some other girls as they hurried over to the swing._

_The raven stood up, trying to see what was happening to Naruto, but was blocked by more girls and a few boys who wanted to be friends with him. Pushing them aside Sasuke was just in time to catch Naruto's angry and hurt look directed at him before he hurried off._

_Feeling hurt as the look reached him, Sasuke just stared at the empty place where he had last seen Naruto. He had not intended for this to happen. All he had wanted to do was help the boy, to 'introduce' himself to him._

_Well, he sure had left an impression on Naruto, but it would not be the one he had intended. Ever since that day, the only way Naruto would look at Sasuke was before he picked a fight with him, with anger and hate written on his face._

-x-

Sitting in their usual seats, team 7 sat beside each other along with every other team of their year. All the teams sat together in one room, all nine of them, divided into trios. Even in the classroom they still needed to do tasks together as a team.

Naruto wasn't paying attention, he never did, but usually he doodled in his notebook or was thinking of ways to annoy someone in the class (mostly Iruka). Now he was just staring sadly at the blue lines on the empty paper.

Having made sure he was sitting in the middle of his team this school day, Sasuke looked down onto Naruto. He knew he had been upset about last night, but the raven had hoped that maybe Naruto had come to realize Hinata wasn't everything to him.

Right now he could hit himself for thinking something like that. How could Naruto get over something like that in just one night? Even Sasuke had been awake all night, thinking of how stupid he had been; the chances he had missed. And he wasn't even the one to pull away from a kiss.

He noticed how very shortly Naruto heaved his head a little and glanced over to Hinata before directing his eyes back at the paper. Hinata was looking at Iruka as he told them all about the Second Ninja War. She wasn't glancing over to Naruto at all, afraid to do so or ignoring him, Sasuke wasn't sure.

Suddenly Naruto noticed Sasuke look down at him. "What?" he asked softly, making sure Iruka didn't hear him.

"Nothing." Sasuke looked back at the blackboard. Then he thought that 'nothing' was not what he should say. Looking back he noticed Naruto sigh, and stare in front of him. "Are… are you alright?" he asked, difficulty to sound normal. He never asked anyone if they were alright, but he had heard others say it often enough… It sounded differently than how he had asked it just now.

Naruto looked up surprised. "Huh?" was all that left his mouth, clearly confused by Sasuke's question.

"You seem…" Sasuke tried again, "distracted."

Naruto blinked at the raven, still not believing what he heard. "What?"

Sasuke started to get annoyed. He could say things like that, just as much as anyone else! Why didn't Naruto open up or at the very least told him to stick to his own business? It wasn't _that_ hard to believe he had asked Naruto such questions. Right?

Sasuke's nostrils opened up a bit, trying to decide if he should repeat his sentence.

"I'm fine, just bored," Naruto flat out lied, turning his head away from the raven.

It was like a knife was plunged into his heart. Naruto had lied to him. He hadn't told him off, no, he had _lied_. It hurt, it did, a lot more than Sasuke had ever expected. Over the years Naruto had yelled at him, had called him names, had ignored him (or had tried to), laughed at him, kicked him, hit him, hurt him in any other bruising way, but never, ever had he lied.

Turning back to his own notes, not that he needed those, but it was just a habit, he tried to think what had happened. Did the occurrence of last night have more of an impact on Naruto than Sasuke could have ever imagined?

-x-

In the break they sat at the same table, along with the other teams. Naruto was acting quite loudly along with Kiba, showing his normal self, but Sasuke could see he wasn't being entirely the same. Still hurt by Naruto's lie, Sasuke looked away, showing he was annoyed by their loud performance.

When Sasuke stood up to buy some food, just to be away from his eight classmates, he didn't look back. Staring at the pricelist, making it look like he was deciding what to buy -even though he had already made up his mind before he had even stood up- he used the time to think things over.

Why would Naruto lie? Was he hurt more badly than expected? Was he afraid of even giving away the slightest hint of what had happened? Didn't he want to talk about it? But then why hadn't he told Sasuke to shut up?

"Onigiri," a soft voice beside the Uchiha said. Surprised Sasuke looked to the side, even more surprised to find Hinata there.

"Hm?"

Hinata looked up at Sasuke, her pale eyes looking into his dark ones. "You always take onigiri if you buy something in the canteen."

Sasuke didn't respond, not sure what to say to the girl he… hated was not the right word… the girl he was jealous of; she had done what he wanted to do, but couldn't.

Hinata looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry if I said something offending."

Sasuke frowned. "Offending?"

"Oh, I thought you didn't like it that I… observed you like onigiri." She knew he hated it how a lot of girls kept following him around, trying to find out everything about their raven god.

"Oh, I don't care." Sasuke turned away from the pricelist. Hinata already knew he wasn't looking at it, and with her beside him he couldn't think anyway.

Standing in queue, Sasuke looked over to Naruto. Maybe today the memory of last night was still too fresh. Tomorrow was a better day to try again. Lie or no lie, he had to try again. He had to show Naruto he really did care, that it wasn't a question he felt to ask for the sake of the team. That he _really_ wanted to know how he felt.

Suddenly he felt a shiver run down his spine. Hinata was standing behind him, he just knew it. Trying to ignore the feeling of unease, Sasuke tried to think what he could do tomorrow to show Naruto that he-

"What?" He turned around, unable to ignore the feeling any longer.

Hinata looked up startled. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't say a-anything."

Sasuke sighed, feeling stupid now. She didn't even know what he had seen last night; that he had been there in the park at all. Even if she did, she would have no idea what it had done to him. "Hn."

Before he could turn away again, Hinata stopped him, softly gripping his arm. "Do you like Naruto-kun-"

Sasuke's eyes almost widened, when he heard those words come from Hinata's mouth. He started to panic on the inside, especially as she stopped talking. "What?" he asked, even though he wasn't sure if he could handle it if she would repeat herself.

Hinata blushed. "Um, do you like Naruto-kun to be…" she stopped again, looking away from Sasuke. "Do you think Naruto-kun likes girls?"

Sasuke's mouth was about to fall open. He couldn't believe she was really asking this… him of all people; what made her think he would talk to her about something like that?

Hinata noticed Sasuke's silence, and started twisting around. "Tha-That's not what I wanted to ask." But it was something she wondered, Sasuke could tell. "Do you think Naruto-kun likes me?"

All Sasuke could do was look at her.

Hinata bit her lip. She looked close to crying actually. Sasuke hated crying girls (and that their emotions were so close to the surface). "I-I'm sorry I-I asked." She wanted to walk away, but before he knew it, Sasuke stopped her.

"I think he cares about you." Stunned by his own words, Sasuke looked at Hinata as she slowly looked up to meet his black eyes. When their eyes locked, her pale eyes widened for a second. Then she looked away again, a small smile appearing on her face.

"Thank you."

Sasuke let go of her, and Hinata walked away.

He wondered why he had told her that, why he had even stopped her. This could have been a great chance for him to let a possible wedge grow between Hinata and Naruto, but maybe that wasn't the way he liked to get together with Naruto.

-x-

_Graduation day had passed a week ago, and now all graduates had gathered in their former classroom, waiting to be divided into genin teams._

_Sasuke had noticed after the graduation how the blond boy had failed, sitting on the swing, looking sadly. Not looking forward to being divided into teams without even the slightest chance of being teamed up with Naruto, Sasuke slumped down graciously behind a desk._

_In the past two years, ever since he had noticed the blond boy, he had formed a special bond with him. Always fighting, watching Naruto try to compete with him, made Sasuke feel… accepted… alive, noticed. He didn't have any friends, but if he thought of Naruto, he thought of him as a friend._

_Silently sulking, holding up a front to the rest of the world, Sasuke stared at the empty blackboard; until commotion beside him made him look up._

_There he was; Naruto was looking at him from his right side._

"_What?" the raven asked, excellently hiding his surprise about the boy being there._

"_What do you mean?" Naruto asked loudly._

"_Sasuke-kun! Can I sit next to you?" Sakura came in, pushing Naruto to the ground._

_Immediately Sasuke turned his head to the front of the classroom. Smirking he was already calculating the chance he had to be teamed with Naruto._

_He would never forget how his heart stopped when out of nowhere Naruto squatted in front of him, staring angrily at him. As Sakura yelled at them, all Sasuke had eye for was to return Naruto's angry glare back at him while Naruto showed him he was still there to compete with him._

_Never would he forget what had happened next. Never had he ever expected that to happen. Naruto was pushed forward, and their lips met into an accidental and sloppy kiss. As short as it was, he would never forget the soft lips pressing against his own._

_Quickly the both of them retreated, spitting to the floor._

"_Naruto! You bastard, I'll kill you!" Sasuke said, really not liking the kiss at all._

_Grabbing his throat, and spitting on the floor, he heard Naruto do the same, voicing the same sort of thoughts as Sasuke had._

_Never had he thought of anything like this to happen, never had he hoped, or even dreamt of it. As far as Sasuke had always considered his relationship to Naruto, it had always been purely a friendship. _

_He would never have expected what effect this kiss would have on him. Maybe not after a day, or a week, a month, not even after a year, but slowly something had sprouted inside him, the idea that this might become more than just a friendship._

-x-

Taking a cold shower early in the morning, he tried to cool off. Closing his eyes he tried to forget his dream, willing his erection to go away.

Knowing full well that willing it away wasn't really something he could do, knowing from experience, he let his head fall against the cold wall of the shower. His bangs stuck to the tiled wall.

They had been a team for over five years now. That meant he had known -really known- Naruto for over seven years; almost half his life. For over seven years he had been interested in Naruto; had in some way been attracted to him. For almost three years that attraction had not only been interest about whom the boy was and his act to the outside world anymore. It had become more; it had grown into a physical… even a sexual attraction.

Ever since Hinata had kissed Naruto, Sasuke felt the pressure weighting him down. His time was coming closer; the time to tell Naruto. Never before had he even thought about doing so. Why would he? Everything had always been just fine as they were.

Sasuke realized that although he had strong feelings for Naruto, all this time he had been trying to deny it, shove it away. He had come so used to his observations of Naruto, his secret staring at him, his silent admiring, that it had become 'normal', a routine… something he didn't even really think about anymore. It still held its mystery after all these years, was still was exciting, trying not be caught, but he had never thought about it further than that. He had never _really_ tried to do more to Naruto than stare at him.

Of course there had been dreams, visions, of him being with Naruto, touching him, kissing him, sometimes even more than that, but never had it really, _really_, crossed his mind to act upon his feelings.

Sasuke wasn't one to show a lot of emotion to the outside world. He wasn't sure how to express himself, let alone express himself in a romantically way. He hardly knew what to do with these feelings when he was alone, standing in the shower like he did now. How should he know what to do when Naruto was _really_ around?

Sasuke looked down his stomach, noticing that this line of thought was not really helping him; seeing Naruto flash in his mind (even when thinking about how he could never make an advance on the blond) made him feel happy, made his stomach churn, and made other things to act on their own.

Angrily he watched the water slide down his body.

He couldn't deny that he liked this feeling, never regretting it when it happened, but never really acting on it either.

Sighing, Sasuke looked around the curtain of the shower, noticing he could very well be late if he didn't hurry up. Of course that couldn't happen, he could never be too late onto the training field, even though he knew it would take at least another half hour for Kakashi to show up; but Sasuke had never been late for anything.

Realizing he was over thinking everything way too much, he grasped the shampoo and started to wash his hair. One way or another, the excitement in his lower body would have to go away.

-x-

Not understanding why he couldn't just let himself be late for once, as the trio had already been waiting for Kakashi for over an hour and a half, Sasuke stared over the water, leaning against the side of the bridge. Naruto sat on top of the railing and Sakura stood in the middle, facing the two boys.

Sasuke had noticed Sakura look at him, but being used to it, he had ignored her. However, when sometime later as he had been watching her for a few minutes, he had noticed this time was different. He was looking at her, but she kept avoiding his eyes. Normally she would have taken that as an invitation to start a (one-sided) conversation.

Slowly Sasuke looked over to Naruto, maybe there was something else going on? But when he saw Naruto grinning, while his head was laying back as he stared at the sky, humming softly, Sasuke knew nothing was wrong with the blond or between his two teammates.

He turned back to Sakura. Still avoiding his eyes, she was looking everywhere except at Sasuke. Glancing between his dark bangs, Sasuke waited for almost fifteen minutes before he said something. "Sakura."

Sakura looked up, surprised he had called her. Naruto apparently was thinking something similar, looking down at the raven. Then he looked over to Sakura, back at Sasuke and then Sakura again.

"Ooh, you're dating?" he asked. Sasuke nearly choked on his own saliva, and Sakura blushed ever so slightly.

"No!" Sasuke said quickly when Sakura was not giving him any indication of denying it.

"Oh, too bad." Naruto looked between the two, who both knew he wasn't sad at all about the fact that Sasuke and Sakura had nothing going on. "Then the date was a disaster?"

"Date?" Sasuke asked confused, a hint of panic visible on his face. Luckily for him no one noticed.

"No, dinner was fine," Sakura told Naruto. "More than fine," she whispered, blushing.

"Ah, oh, I see. Awkward moment." Naruto looked back up. They were not dating _yet._ Sakura was waiting for Sasuke to ask her or something.

"How did dinner with Hinata go?" Sakura asked instead. Sasuke knew she hoped that Naruto and Hinata would get together, which would make sure that Naruto wouldn't bother her. It was actually her doing that the two got to talk to each other at all. She was trying to play the Cupid in their relationship, which Hinata and Naruto both didn't mind at all.

Naruto didn't look down. "It was great," was all he said, sounding happy.

"Good, good," Sakura smiled.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Was he lying again?

"I wonder what takes Kakashi-sensei so long?" Naruto asked bored.

Sakura didn't even notice the change of topic as she started complaining along with Naruto, following their usual routine.

About ten minutes later, Kakashi finally showed up, ignoring the rain of complains fired at him, waving them away with his hand like it was smoke.

"We are going on an excursion," he told his students. All became quiet.

"Excursion?" Naruto asked stunned. "Excursion?" he asked again, this time with a happy face.

An excursion meant a mission, with some extra time to train in a different setting than the village.

"Yes," Kakashi nodded.

"Hell yes!" Sakura yelled. Interesting missions had been running thin lately.

"So get your stuff, we'll be leaving in 30 minutes." Kakashi got out his book and leaned against the railing.

-x-

They had been walking the entire day, Sasuke didn't complain, he already had at least three fights with Naruto, and the day wasn't over yet. Things were looking good.

Smirking, Sasuke walked all the way at the back, thinking this day was a good one. They were away from the village, away from Hinata, and they would be with just the four of them for at least a week. This was an opportunity… his opportunity. Fate, if he would believe in such things.

Naruto was pestering Kakashi about the fact that he was reading that book all the time. Sakura had joined him, agreeing with the blond. It had even come to the point where Naruto was trying to get Kakashi's book out of his hands. He hadn't succeeded just yet.

Jumping on the tall man, Naruto clung to him, trying to snatch the green book that was being held as far away from him as possible. "Give! Me!"

"You're too young," Kakashi told him.

"I don't want to read it. I know Ero-sennin writes crap." He reached out again, though he would never be able to get the book, held away from him at arm's length.

"Literature," Kakashi said.

"Ha!" Sakura mocked.

Sasuke watched Naruto struggle, while Kakashi easily pushed him away, keeping him out of reach of the book, while he kept reading (or at least trying to do so).

"Look Naruto," Kakashi tried to distract Naruto, "we're there."

"I will not be fooled." Naruto lunged again, almost tripping over Kakashi's foot.

"We really are there," Sasuke said softly.

"What?" Naruto turned around; looking at the building Sasuke was looking at. "We are," he said baffled. When he noticed Kakashi had gotten away he grumbled.

"Good afternoon," a woman in kimono welcomed them into the inn. "You must be the Konoha ninja we asked for."

"Indeed we are," Kakashi told the beautiful woman, making her blush. Naruto snorted.

The woman looked down at Naruto, the smallest of the four, before looking back up. "My mother will tell you what your mission will be, but before she will, dinner is ready. Please accept this offer." She bowed ever so slightly.

"Don't mind if we do."

They followed the woman to the dining room, in the small but elegant inn. Sliding open the door, she knelt down. "Please enjoy your meal."

The four walked in, and the woman closed the door behind them.

"Oooh, that sure looks good," Naruto said, saliva dripping from his mouth in anticipation.

"Ew, Naruto!"

They sat down and started eating the delicious food. (How Kakashi eats without showing his face no one will ever know, but he probably has his ways).

"That must be very difficult to do," Naruto told Sakura as they were eating, while conversing about something Sakura had to do for her medical study.

Sasuke hardly ever said anything, just listened. Contrary to what most people thought, he actually liked to listen. Even to boring conversations between Sakura and Naruto (and boring they could be!)

As they were almost finished, the woman came back in. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but my mother will not be able to see you today. There is a wedding party staying over, causing for a lot of work. She will, however, speak with you tomorrow morning."

"That's alright," Kakashi told her.

"This brings me to something else, which you might not really li-" she was interrupted as some other waitress tapped on her shoulder. "A moment please." She went away.

"Hmm, wonder how bad the news can be," Naruto wondered, "as long as she doesn't say that we can't make use of the onsen, I'm-"

Sakura hit him over the head. "It's all for free, you can't complain."

Naruto rubbed his head. "Not for free, we have a mission to do. Plus we won't get paid for it."

"Because we can stay here. It's just a C-rank mission."

"Still."

Kakashi stood up and walked over to the door. He left without a word.

"Pervert," Naruto muttered.

"You think he's… going for her?" Sakura asked, pulling up her eyebrow.

"Why shouldn't he, a single man, a beautiful woman…" Naruto shrugged.

"I don't know, I don't think he would do that on a mission."

"Excursion, the mission officially hasn't started yet," he told her.

"I really don't think he will," Sakura interjected.

"He's a man, he has needs."

Sakura stared at Naruto. "Ha! Come on, Naruto." She shook her head.

"I'm a man too, I know." He crossed his arms.

Sakura raised an eyebrow before bursting out laughing. Naruto frowned at her. "Haha, you're barely 17, you're no man!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, looking angry. "Then what am I?"

Sakura sniggered. "A boy."

"What's the difference?"

"You're not an adult."

"Well… neither are you!" Naruto crossed his arms, pouting. Sakura couldn't stop laughing. "You're definitely not a woman," Naruto muttered.

"But don't you know girls grow up faster than boys? You can probably call a girl a woman at the age of 16, while a boy might not become a man until he turns 21… perhaps," Sakura was able to say between laughs. "Haha, 'I'm a man too'," she made fun of Naruto by repeating his words.

Naruto grumbled, slumping.

Sasuke smirked. "Well, Sakura, having been to onsens with Naruto, I can tell you that Naruto indeed is-"

Thinking Sasuke would tell Sakura nothing that would be proper to tell a girl, nor something to his favor, Naruto lunged for Sasuke, making them both roll over the ground.

"He's what?" Sakura asked, giggling. "A man, or not?" Strangely interested in Sasuke's view upon Naruto (for she would probably never know about this 'view'), Sakura tried to pull Naruto away from Sasuke.

"He's-" Sasuke tried again, but Naruto held his hands on Sasuke's mouth, and straddled him.

"If you dare say something ba-"

The door opened again, silently closing as Kakashi entered. "I always knew a trio would come from-"

"We're not!" a canon was shot back at the silver haired man, minus Sasuke, who still had Naruto's hand on his mouth.

Chuckling, Kakashi leant against the wall. "Let's get to bed; you'll be up early tomorrow."

"Yes, probably just so we can wait an hour for you to join us," Sakura muttered, standing up and walking away. Kakashi told her what her room was and followed her out of the dining room.

Still Naruto's hand was pressing on Sasuke's mouth, Naruto looked down at Sasuke. "Don't ever go there again," he said angrily. And so Sasuke found out this was a forbidden (maybe rather embarrassing?) topic to Naruto. Naruto let go of Sasuke, not standing up from his stomach just yet.

"Hm," Sasuke smirked.

He was sure Naruto had wanted to hit him, but didn't. Instead the blond stood up and left.

While Naruto left the room, Sasuke smiled. Naruto didn't sit on top very often. He actually never won or could surprise Sasuke enough to end up on top in a fight. It was doing strange things to him, inside his stomach. He was glad he would get to bed and have some time to think; being alone. Sleeping in one room with Kakashi and Naruto could hardly be called alone, but at least it would be quiet. Standing up, he walked out of the room.

When he came to the men's side of the inn, he noticed Kakashi and Naruto standing in front of a room, Naruto yelling at Kakashi. "Why?"

"Because there are a lot of visitors here right now. And keep your voice down, this is an inn," Kakashi tries to shush Naruto.

Naruto pulled up his nose and crossed his arm. Then he noticed Sasuke. "You tell him!"

"What?" Sasuke asked, sounding almost bored.

"You will have to share this room while I'll be staying over there," Kakashi said pointing to a room further down the hall. "They don't have rooms with more beds anymore."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "So? That's alright." He stepped to the door of the room and walked inside.

"That's not the issue at all!" Naruto called, walking after Sasuke. Kakashi quickly closed the door behind them, to silence the upcoming outburst.

Inside the room Naruto pointed to a small bed, obviously about to yell, red from anger. "There is only one bed!"

-x-

He was ready to die, he really was. And a happy death it would be, no regrets, but at least he would be able to rest in peace.

Softly snoring beside him, his back turned to him, Naruto had long ago fallen asleep. Sasuke on the other hand, was torn up on the inside. One side of him was happy, overjoyed, excited… and that was the whole point for the other half to be afraid and not being able to fall asleep.

He couldn't get excited now, Naruto was so very… very close to him. His soft breathing sounding so loud to him, his blond spikes gently touching the pillow, looking soft and asking to be touched, his back exposed, ready to be hugged. His dreams could so easily become reality.

Sasuke tried to turn around, so he would at least not be able to see Naruto anymore, but he couldn't. The small room made it only possible for the bed to stand against the wall. After a short fight, that Naruto had actually won, it was decided that Sasuke would sleep against the wall. The winning argument from Naruto: he might need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night…

Thinking, now that he knew he would probably be awake the entire night anyway, Sasuke wouldn't have minded Naruto hobbling over him to get out of the bed. And that way he would at least be able to turn _his_ back to Naruto, or even leave the bed and sleep on the floor if things got bad. Now all he could do was lie as still as possible and hope he would fall asleep, while nothing would happen.

Horror and joy, he had never thought the line between the two would be so thin. He was ready to die.

-x-

Apparently he had fallen asleep after all, because he was woken up by an arm hitting him in the face.

"Argh, Naruto!" Sasuke tried to get the arm out of his face, but instead stiffened up. Naruto was facing him.

Naruto's soft breath hit him gently in the face, causing a shiver to run down Sasuke's spine. Their noses were so close, almost touching. Naruto's yellow eyelashes… his eyebrows… his face was one of pure serenity. He was himself, no loud voice, laughing, trying to get attention, no crying of being alone. He was resting, at peace.

Sasuke's breath hitched as his eyes wanted to move lower over the whiskered cheeks, down the small nose, to the soft lips he had only once touched before.

Stunned by the beautiful view in front of him, Sasuke was breathless. He had no idea how long he watched, just looking Naruto sleep. Maybe only seconds, maybe hours, he didn't know, but it didn't matter, it was eternity to him.

It seemed like a dream, a dream come true; Naruto beside him. Maybe it really was a dream, and he should wake up before it was too late. Maybe he had envisioned this so many times that it looked so real. Maybe… he should just…

His heart beating in his throat, Sasuke moved up his hand; shaking, it moved closer to Naruto. Maybe he could touch those yellow spikes for a bit… Still shaking, his hand touched the soft, thick hair. It really was as soft as he had thought it was. Slowly he dared to roll the lock between his fingers, and even stroke his hand softly through the rest of the blond spikes.

Smiling uncertainly he moved his hand away from the hair. Did he dare touch more?

Thinking he might die of a heart attack -his heart beating so very fast- Sasuke moved his hand over to Naruto's cheek, stopping a millimeter from the skin. Why couldn't he stop shaking? This was important!

Taking a deep breath, making sure Naruto wouldn't wake up, he suddenly let his hand touch Naruto's face.

Naruto pulled up his nose and mumbled something. "Mhhhke."

Quickly Sasuke pulled his hand back and closed his eyes. Naruto would be stupid enough to believe he was asleep.

Seconds passed, minutes went, but Naruto didn't do anything; Sasuke felt no fist in his face. He dared to open his eyes again, just in time to see Naruto lick his lips.

Before he even knew what he did, realized what had happened, he had leant in to Naruto, crossing the small distance in no time, until their lips grazed once more. The touch was so soft that when Sasuke quickly pulled back, shocked about his own action, he noticed, once he had calmed down, that Naruto still hadn't woken up. He had even slept through this?

Starting to believe that this might really be a dream, Sasuke grew overconfident, making mistakes he normally wouldn't.

He wanted to kiss Naruto again, but this time it wouldn't be as smoothly as before, not as graciously as he had wanted it to be. In fact, it was almost as if he slipped, had miscalculated the distance between them, and pressed down his lips on Naruto's harder than he had intended.

Immediately Naruto opened his eyes and flew up. "WHAT THE-!" he yelled.

Shocked, Sasuke moved over to the wall, pressing himself against it. "What?" he asked, stunned.

"Y-you kissed me!" Naruto said, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"I-I didn't," Sasuke stuttered, automatically denying everything.

"You did!" Naruto left the bed, walking away from Sasuke. "What were you thinking?"

"I didn't! You started moving in your sleep, you move a lot! It was an accident!"

However, Naruto didn't believe it. "You did, you think I'm stupid?" He reached forward. "I'll sleep in the bathtub!" He pulled the sheet away from Sasuke, who was unable to defend the bedding in his shocked state, and stomped off to the tiny bathroom, which Naruto would soon remember didn't had a bathtub at all.

Still pressed up against the wall Sasuke could almost cry, he didn't, but closed his eyes and pulled up his legs, hugging his knees. How could things have gotten this far?

-oXo-


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you all readers and reviewers for the alerts and reviews! And of course for just reading :)

-oXo-

**A Dark Cloud and a Bright Sun**

Chapter 2:

_Pain, immense pain. Deep inside, all he felt was pain and nothing else._

_Walking into the street where he lived, he noticed something was off, different. No one was greeting him, no one waved at him as he got home from school. Where was everyone?_

_Slowly following his way home, nothing seemed to be right. He could feel something was very wrong. As a cold shiver ran down his spine, young Sasuke broke out into a run, wanting to get home fast. This didn't feel right. _

_Arriving at their house, he ran up the few steps and opened the front door, quickly hurrying inside. As he opened the door from the hall, he hoped to see his mom behind the kitchen counter, preparing dinner and greeting him. He slowly stepped into the room._

_All that greeted him was red… Red blood was everywhere, covering the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. And in the middle of the room was his mother, not smiling at him, but lying still and lifeless. Her empty eyes stared at him._

"_M-mom?" Shocked Sasuke stepped forward, into the pool of red, kneeling down beside his mother. "Mom?" He didn't dare to touch her, he was too afraid. Tears were falling down his cheeks._

"_She's dead."_

_Sasuke turned around, looking up shocked to find his brother standing in the doorway to their father's study._

"_N-No, she can't be," Sasuke cried._

_Itachi looked down, looking sad. Blood was covering the front of his blue shirt and his hands. When he saw Sasuke stare at them, Itachi tried to move them away, but Sasuke had already seen them. "It's… dad's," he said softly._

_Sasuke started shivering, unable to comprehend everything. "Why? What happened?" he cried, yelling at his brother._

_Itachi stepped forward, closer to his little brother. "It will be alright." His voice shook._

"_What happened?" Sasuke asked again, tears falling down his cheeks._

_Itachi hunched down and hugged his brother. "They were murdered." He lifted Sasuke up and walked out of their home._

_Sasuke yelled, and screamed, telling Itachi to put him down, take him back to their mother. "Kaa-san!" His arm reached for their mother as she disappeared from view. "Mom!"_

_Itachi cried as he knew his little brother couldn't see him. "They will not come back."_

_Sasuke would yell until he lost his voice, kick and punch until his arms and legs couldn't move anymore, but while he would eventually regain his voice and energy, he would never be able to get rid of the pain and emptiness inside his heart._

_Pain, immense pain. Deep inside, all he felt was pain and nothing else._

_Until a certain rainy day, when he saw a certain blond boy standing in an empty street, yelling on top of his lungs. A sparkle of happiness had been born: he wasn't the only one in pain._

-x-

Staring in front of him, not really seeing his teammates spar, he blinked. Four days, including their journey over here, had passed. The mission (protecting some important jewellery from customers at the inn) had been finished.

All they had been required to do was take turns guarding the safe, while the others stood lined up unnoticeably through the inn. It had been a good thing that they had to move around individually, because this way Sasuke and Naruto hadn't needed to be close together during the day. Sasuke had tried to talk to Naruto once, when he came to take over his place to guard the safe, but Naruto had told him to go away, screaming at him. Sasuke hadn't dared to say anything else, not wanting to create a scene.

Every night, Naruto would immediately move into the bathroom, locking it, before Sasuke could even blink. Sasuke hadn't slept a lot, which made it even harder to pay attention to his teammates' sparring. He had made a lot of mistakes during training, which had made Kakashi decide to put him aside and let him observe the other two instead of joining them.

He couldn't help it, he was tired, but every time Naruto got close to attack him (and he could see Naruto was meaning every punch he threw at him) he was hardly able to dodge.

Feeling bruised all over, Sasuke turned to look at Kakashi, who stood beside him. Kakashi had taken him apart, trying to find out what was wrong with the boy.

"Not feeling well?" he asked, already knowing Sasuke would never admit it if he was ill or not feeling well, rather falling down unconscious than admitting it.

"Hn," was Sasuke's answer, as he crossed his arms.

"I see," Kakashi said, which made Sasuke look up at him. "It's the single bed."

Sasuke was sure Kakashi would be able to hear his heart beating. "What?" he asked gruffly.

"I know Naruto is quite… the restless sleeper. I bet he pushes you out of the bed at least four times a night."

"Hn." Sasuke looked down; glad Kakashi had come to this conclusion as a reason for him being so tired.

"I know it's not ideal, Sasuke, but you need to be able to sleep in a lot of hard conditions during more difficult missions. You need to save your energy, and regain it in every possible way. You better get yourself some good night of sleep soon. The mission is over, but otherwise it could cost you your head… or that of someone else." Kakashi let his hand fall on Sasuke's shoulder, and his eye made some happy half-moon motion. "Just push back, I'm sure Naruto will not even notice." He turned away and looked back at the fighting pair.

Sasuke was far from being happy, but at least this feeling of relieve that Kakashi wasn't aware of what was really going on felt good.

Kakashi called the other two over to have lunch.

Sakura and Naruto were already in conversation, telling each other what had gone wrong and what was good about their fight.

"You sure made a strange jump when you spun around, trying to avoid my Rasengan," Naruto laughed.

"Haha," Sakura laughed along, "at least I didn't get hit like Sasuke-kun." She looked over to the raven boy. "Did it leave a mark?" she asked concerned, seeing his angry face.

"Hardly," Sasuke said grumpily. He could actually feel the scratch it had left behind on his arm, but he would never admit that.

"But talking about strange movements," Sakura continued, noticing Sasuke wasn't in the mood to be pointed on his mistakes, "you were being really stupid thinking you could use a kunai to stop me from punching you."

"It really wasn't that stupid," Naruto huffed.

"All you could do was avoid my punches. It was like playing whack-a-mole," Sakura laughed.

Naruto wasn't charmed by her laughing. "I was trying something out!"

"What? A new stupid dance?" Sakura laughed.

This was the moment Sasuke would find out he wasn't the only one not sleeping well. Naruto's fuse was short too today.

"You know what's stupid?" he asked her angrily, standing up, stunning Sakura by his sudden outburst. "For a guy to kiss another guy in the middle of the night." Naruto huffed and walked away, leaving the rest of his team stunned.

Sasuke looked up hurt by Naruto's words. Naruto didn't need to look angrily at him; he could feel the arrow aimed at him painfully run through his chest without seeing Naruto's eyes.

"Huh? What was all that about?" Sakura asked, looking over to Sasuke, who stared back dully. She looked over to Kakashi, who shrugged.

-x-

He couldn't believe how happy he had been when they had gone on this trip, seeing that everything was so sunny and bright. He was sure everything would turn out alright.

How wrong he had been. Curled up against the wall, sitting on the bed, he felt cold and empty again. He hadn't felt empty for such a long time, but now that now it was back, it felt double as bad as it had once done.

Seeing Sasuke's performance on the training field worsen with the minute, Kakashi had called them all together, and had told them they would do something else. Individual assignments to improve the abilities they were worst at.

Sasuke, being certain he would need to be around Kakashi to train his Sharingan, had already started walking away like the rest, to find an isolated place to train. However, Kakashi had stopped him and told him to go sleep, take some rest. Sasuke had struggled, said he didn't needed it, but Kakashi had just walked off, giving him one final (warningly) look.

There was a reason Sasuke didn't want to sleep. Now he was alone in a room, free to his thoughts. Why else would he not have been able to sleep before? This was the whole point, he needed distraction.

Still, after not having closed an eye for two and a half nights, sleep finally set in, and Sasuke sunk down the wall, softly breathing. Only to be woken up by a door closing loudly. Immediately he shot up, which made Naruto turn to him, shocked, and looking surprised at the raven's presence.

"What are you doing here?" he asked before remembering he was angry at the raven. He was about to turn around and leave again, but Sasuke had made up his mind. The short nap had given him some energy, making him able to stand in front of the door before Naruto could reach for the handle. "Let me through," Naruto demanded.

"No, we need to talk."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"About…" Sasuke looked up into those fierce, angry blue eyes. "About what happened that night."

Naruto's eyebrows came down so far, making him look so angry, that Sasuke was sure he had never seen the boy like this ever before. "I wouldn't know why," Naruto spat at him, "now let me through." He tried to push Sasuke aside, throwing in all of his weight against the raven, but Sasuke had made up his mind; he needed to talk to Naruto.

"We kissed," he spurted out.

Naruto stopped his pushing, but didn't look up to Sasuke, still leaning against him. "_You_ kissed me," he accused. "Don't twist the truth!" he spat.

Sasuke closed his eyes. "I… I did."

Naruto froze up, having expected Sasuke to deny everything again, not to agree. He swallowed. Did he hear that right? "You kissed me while I was asleep…" he stated. Though it was a question, it didn't quite sound like one.

Sasuke nodded. Naruto felt the motion as his shoulder pressed against Sasuke's collarbone. "I did."

Seeing that Naruto wasn't yelling at him anymore, or tried to beat him to a pulp, Sasuke took a breath. He needed to tell the truth, it was the only way.

"I… I like you."

He was dizzy, not sure if it was because he was still tired or because of the deafening silence hanging in the room, but Sasuke was sure he wouldn't be able to keep his legs from shaking for much longer. Naruto hadn't responded in any way. Not the slightest intake of a breath, not a sound, not a word, no action at all. He just stood there, still leaning against Sasuke, his hand on the doorknob.

Then, without a word, Naruto pushed Sasuke aside easily, and walked out of the room.

Unable to stand any longer, Sasuke slid down the wall until he sat on the ground. Unable to move; it was like he was stunned. He stared at the bed, but didn't see it. He breathed, but he didn't know it. He was alive, but he didn't feel it.

He had finally told Naruto. It didn't make him feel as he had expected, or had hoped to feel, at all. It felt worse, much worse, while on the other hand he felt nothing. Emptiness. The emptiness was back.

-x-

_Itachi sat down in front of him, smiling brightly, having congratulated him over and over again; it actually made Sasuke feel sick._

"_Stop it," he told his older brother._

"_Stop what?"_

"_Smiling."_

"_But you are a genin, you passed Kakashi-san's test; I'm very proud."_

"_You became a genin when you were much younger. You were already an ANBU at this age." Sasuke folded his arms._

_Itachi laid his hand on Sasuke's pointy hairstyle. "Little brother, life isn't about age. You just do your best to become a great ninja, without looking at me. Have fun, live, play-"_

"_I'm 12, I don't play."_

"_You are _only_ 12 years old, you _should_ play. It's healthy."_

_Sasuke glared at him. _

_Itachi's face changed, a smile, an almost sad smile, but a proud smile too, was on his face. "Mom and dad would have been proud."_

_Sasuke's frown dropped, and he looked over to the small cabinet where a picture of their parents stood, incense spreading a familiar smell._

"_You think so?" Sasuke asked carefully, unsure._

_Itachi turned to Sasuke. "Of course they would." Sasuke looked up, smiling. "They really would be."_

_Sasuke was happy for the first time without having to be around or think of a certain boy. It was the first time he actually felt the emptiness being filled up. His chest literally swelled up with joy as he breathed in. _

_Itachi hadn't seen his brother really smile like this since their parents' death. _

-x-

Naruto hadn't returned for the night, Sasuke had no idea where he had stayed to sleep, but when he saw him the next morning outside the inn, he realized he probably hadn't slept a lot anyway.

Since they were told to do their individual assignments again, Sasuke didn't see Naruto again until dinner, which Naruto practically inhaled. He acted cheerily during dinner, like everything was normal; Naruto was good at putting up a fake front.

After dinner they played cards for a short while, until Sasuke had socialized enough, and went to bed. He preferred to be alone every now and then, and since he always had done so, no one noticed something was off between the two boys at all.

Sasuke had been sitting and lying on the bed the rest of the evening, trying to distract his mind from the happy blond boy somewhere else in the building. Sasuke spent his time making a groceries list in his head for when he got back home. The fact that Itachi would make sure the fridge was filled was beside the point.

Later that evening, Naruto opened the door and silently stepped in, Sasuke almost hadn't heard him. He sat up, though he didn't expect Naruto to talk to him. He was right. Naruto, without looking at him, went straight for the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Sasuke slumped down. At least he didn't slam with the door anymore. He lay back on the bed (still without a blanket, not daring to ask for a new one). He shivered before he closed his eyes, ready to fall asleep.

When he heard the door of the bathroom open again, he expected Naruto to leave; he probably came to get his blanket. However, he didn't hear any other door opening or closing after that, so he decided to look up.

Naruto was staring at him, blanket in hand. Sasuke sat up, surprised Naruto was still there.

When Naruto didn't start talking, Sasuke decided Naruto was waiting for him to speak up first. "You… want to sleep in the bed?" he asked.

Naruto blinked. "Huh?" He looked down at the bed. "Oh, no, the floor is fine, I'm used to it."

"Oh."

Quite an uncomfortable silence followed, until Naruto started twisting and turning.

"You mind," he asked.

Sasuke looked at him, not sure what he was asking.

"You mind if I sleep in here? The bathroom floor is so cold… and so little space," he almost muttered.

"No, of course, go ahead."

Sasuke couldn't believe Naruto needed to ask; normally he would just do it.

"You won't feel… uncomfortable?" Naruto asked.

"No… you?"

Naruto shrugged before dropping the blanked and lying down, turning off the lights.

When everything became silent, Sasuke couldn't help it as a small smile formed on his lips.

-x-

The next day, everything had turned back to normal… Well, almost everything. Naruto yelled at him, they were able to spar normally, Naruto joked around, Sakura laughed and tried to win Sasuke over, Kakashi read his perverted book, and Sasuke was quiet. The only thing off was that Naruto didn't meet Sasuke's eyes. It was like he was afraid to see what was in there.

Tomorrow they would head back home again, and Sasuke actually didn't mind to be able to get back into his own bed again; his own room. Only Itachi could pester him there, but luckily he needed to leave for missions to, more often than Sasuke did.

Lying on the mattress, Sasuke looked over to Naruto as he lay on the floor, rolled up in the blanket. He had his back to Sasuke, so he couldn't see his face, but he knew Naruto was still awake.

He turned over to his back and looked at the dark ceiling. "You remember our mission in the land of lightning?" he asked, not sure where this was going. He never was much of a talker once the lights had turned off (actually he was _never _much of a talker, but at least during the day he did produce some words).

"Lightning?" Naruto asked. Sasuke could hear him turn over.

"Hm, we got hit by a jutsu from some strange clan."

"Ah, you couldn't stop laughing; I remember," Naruto sniggered.

"Yes," Sasuke muttered, "but at least that was better than you being unable to stop cackling."

Naruto pouted, Sasuke couldn't see, but he knew. "That was not funny."

"I thought so."

"What?" Naruto asked, surprised and angry.

Sasuke grinned. "I couldn't stop laughing about it."

Naruto turned over to Sasuke, before he started to laugh. "Oh, is that why you couldn't stop laughing, I thought it was the jutsu."

Sasuke silently chuckled. "I fooled you."

"Sure did."

Slowly Naruto's laughing died down, and everything became silent again.

"I'm glad we were lost back then, and that the jutsu wore off before we found the others," Naruto said.

"Hn, yeah." Sasuke closed his eyes again and turned to lie on his side. He heard Naruto shuffle inside his cocoon. He wished he had a blanket too, he was freezing, but he was already glad Naruto was sleeping in the same room again.

"You still angry?" He had asked it before he realized he had asked the question out loud.

Naruto didn't say anything for some time, so Sasuke started to hope he was already asleep, and hadn't heard.

"I… I don't know." Naruto had heard him after all. Naruto turned again; the boy really couldn't lie still at all. "I don't know what to think."

"You hate me for doing it?" Sasuke asked, referring to the kiss.

"I don't like 'hate', it's a… wrong word," Naruto said silently. Sasuke understood, probably better than Naruto knew. "I'm not happy you did it, and I'm still mad you denied doing it, and I'm angry you thought you could… could k-kiss me like that." Naruto blushed, but Sasuke would never know.

"I don't know if it matters, but… I'm really sorry."

Naruto was baffled by Sasuke's apology, which was the reason he couldn't think of anything to say for over almost ten minutes. Sasuke already thought Naruto had fallen sleep, and was about to do the same when suddenly Naruto spoke up again after all.

"Hinata kissed me a week ago."

Sasuke had no idea why Naruto had to bring that up right now of all moments. It was almost as if he needed to tell Sasuke that he had been kissed before. "Oh," was all that left Sasuke's mouth. It sounded almost like a groan instead of a word.

"I pulled back. It was an automatic reaction; I don't know why I did it." Naruto sighed. "You think that's weird?"

Weird, no; surprising… yes. "I don't know," Sasuke said. He had no idea what Naruto wanted from him by telling him this.

"Girls…" Naruto moved inside his cocoon, making his next words inaudible. Apparently Naruto had noticed too that the words hadn't been clear, because he twisted some more, and finally sat up. "How come you like me while girls have been following you around ever since you were 9?"

Immediately Sasuke remembered the swing, he was sure Naruto was thinking about that too.

"I was 10 back then," Sasuke said.

"And I was 9," Naruto countered.

It was quiet again.

"You didn't answer my question," Naruto said after a while. He moved closer to the bed.

Sasuke sat up too, looking down at the strange white figure beside the bed. The white cocoon made Naruto look like a huge maggot (which was actually quite funny).

"Y-" Sasuke stopped. What should he say?

"You don't like girls?" Naruto changed the question.

"Not really."

"You never tried to look at one as… as a friend?"

"No, they are all annoying."

"You never thought of having a girlfriend?"

Sasuke could tell Naruto was honestly curious, not meaning to make him feel uncomfortable; he really wanted to understand him. Sasuke was glad for that.

"After my parents died, I felt lonely… empty."

"It must be hard to lose your parents," Naruto said softly.

All Sasuke could do was nod. "I felt like no one understood me. Everyone pitied me, tried to comfort me, but no one understood what it was like to feel empty. I had Itachi, but he was away for missions a lot, he needed to take care of me… of the both of us."

Sasuke had never told anyone before, and was actually surprised how… easy it was to tell Naruto. "I was angry at everyone. It was like they tried to make me forget my parents, like they had never been killed, just had gone on a long vacation or something. It was like they were denying everything. It hurt, they had been murdered, and no one even tried to find the bastard who had done it." Sasuke clenched his fists. "I felt empty."

He looked over to the cocoon with yellow hair. "Until I met you."

"At the swings?" Naruto asked, wondering how that could have changed Sasuke's emptiness.

"No, before that."

Naruto thought this over, he knew he wasn't good at remembering faces, but he really couldn't think of a time he had met Sasuke before then.

"You didn't see me when I first met you."

"Oh."

"I think it was your foster parent whom you were yelling at in the rain," Sasuke started.

Naruto was silent, he didn't remember that exact memory; there were a lot of those memories, but he was fazed by the fact that Sasuke knew about that at all. "Oh."

Sasuke laughed nervously. "Seeing you yelling at her in the rain… I could see you knew what it was like to be empty inside; for people to not really know you. I was interested in you."

"You were? All we ever do is fight." Naruto frowned.

"Yeah…but somehow, through the fighting, I feel like there is a connection between us."

"I honestly have never felt like that," Naruto blurted out.

Silence fell before Sasuke started laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Naruto asked, not liking to be left out of the fun.

"Nothing, that's just…"

"Just what? Like me?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Naruto pouted again, curling up inside the blanket. "You still didn't answer my question," Naruto said again after a while.

"No, I never thought of any girl as a girlfriend. Love never really interested me."

"What?" Naruto asked confused.

"That's what you asked."

"Oh, I meant the other question." _Why had he 'chosen' to like him? _That was the question Naruto had been referring to.

"Oh." Sasuke tried to think back what the other question had been, when Naruto suddenly gasped.

"Hold on!" Sasuke looked down at Naruto, seeing he was looking up at him. "You liked me… for how long?"

Sasuke hadn't expected that. Naruto was never the brightest. He hadn't thought Naruto would ask _that_. Maybe telling Naruto all this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

"I don't know," Sasuke shrugged.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "You do, I can tell." Naruto moved so he could lean on his knees. "How long? I thought it was just recently, but…" Naruto's eyes grew, and he moved back from Sasuke. "Ever since then?"

"Since when?" Sasuke asked confused.

"No way… that…" Naruto moved further away.

"What? Since when?" Sasuke asked again, afraid of Naruto's answer.

"We were so young…" Naruto took a dramatically breath.

"What?" Sasuke almost wanted to stand up and kick Naruto against his head. "No! What are you thinking?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know, I have no idea how love works." He looked up stunned after he finished his sentence watching Sasuke's reaction. "I mean… of course I know! What I meant was… that I… I-"

"I know you don't," Sasuke said softly.

Still on a safe distance away from Sasuke, Naruto sat frozen. "W-What do you mean?"

"You never had parents, or anyone that loved you when you were small. I've seen the way adults treated you when you were young. It's not that strange that you don't know what love is. Everyone ignored you, or sneered at you. You never did anything wrong, they just seemed to hate you without a reason." Sasuke looked away. "It's not weird at all, or something to be embarrassed about."

Naruto looked down, not answering.

"I started to like you about three years ago," Sasuke said softly.

"You never…" Naruto was still stunned by Sasuke's words that he at first hadn't even realized that Sasuke had given him an answer. When finally he realized what Sasuke had said, he frowned. "You never showed me or said anything. I thought you hated me."

"I don't. I just…" Sasuke shrugged. "I don't know."

"You don't know how to express yourself," Naruto stated.

"Maybe."

Naruto lay down again, curling up, lying on his back. Sasuke lay back too. Slowly his eyes closed, unable to keep them open much longer, they felt so heavy.

About to fall asleep, Naruto startled Sasuke with his sudden words. "I still don't know what to think," Naruto told him. "Just give me time."

Everything became quiet again. The corners of Sasuke's mouth curled up ever so slightly.

-x-

"Rheaaaaagh!"

They both sat up when a scream was heard. Sasuke looked down at Naruto as the blond turned on a light, noticing he was only wearing his orange boxers when the blanket fell down his body. When Naruto noticed Sasuke watching him, he blushed and started looking for his shirt.

"What was that?" the blond asked as his shirt was on, still red in the face, not looking Sasuke in the eye.

"A scream from a woman, dobe."

Naruto looked up when he heard the name calling, looking Sasuke in the eye for a brief second before frowning and looking away. "Of course, I know that." Naruto stood up, and so did Sasuke.

Shivering from the cold, Sasuke walked to the door with Naruto. The blond opened it and they both listened, looking around the dark hallway.

"I think it came from that way," Sasuke whispered, pointing left.

"Are you sure?" Naruto whispered back, looking the other way, trying to push Sasuke away from him, thinking he was standing too close by.

"Hn."

Naruto stepped out of the room, and started walking down the hallway in the direction Sasuke had said. Walking behind him, Sasuke made sure not to make any sound to give his location away. He probably was so good at it that Naruto needed to look back a couple of times to see if he was still there.

Suddenly Naruto stopped, and Sasuke bumped into him. Naruto angrily turned around and pushed Sasuke back, before pasting himself against the wall again. They were standing beside a corner. Moving closer to Naruto again, Sasuke listened to any sound that he thought Naruto might be hearing. Why else had he stopped?

When Naruto felt Sasuke's shoulder touch his, he groped for the raven's shoulder to push him off again. "Not so close," he muttered, before turning around the corner and sneaked away.

Sasuke followed without question.

"Oaaah!" came the voice again, right from the room Naruto was passing. He jumped away from the wall up against the one on the other side, holding his chest.

Without further question, or warning to Sasuke, Naruto barged right into the room before Sasuke could even stop him to form a plan or tell him to wait.

"Stop ri-" Naruto stopped in the door, his mouth falling open. Sasuke had never seen Naruto change color this fast. He was as red as a lighthouse in no time.

"Sorry." Naruto had closed the door so fast that Sasuke hadn't even been able to look inside, and thus had no idea what was going on.

"What hap-"

"Let's go, nothing _you're_ interested in," Naruto told him, pulling him along.

Still confused, Sasuke followed the still deep red Naruto. He could actually feel the warmth radiating from him. "Naruto?" he asked when they neared their room again.

Naruto didn't answer, just pushed him inside, closed the door, rolled up in his blanket, and ignored Sasuke.

"What happened in there?" Sasuke asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Nothing."

"If it was nothing you wouldn't have reacted like this."

"Just shut up about it." Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "And you should pull on something warmer, you're freezing." Naruto covered his head in the blanket, making sure Sasuke understood he didn't want to talk anymore.

-x-

_He opened his eyes, lazily blinking a few times before he started looking around. Apparently he had fallen asleep, he didn't know when, but looking out to the moon he noticed it was night._

_When he had come home, tired of practice, he had gone straight to bed. He looked over to the door, noticing it was slightly ajar. Itachi had at a time peered into the room to see if he was home._

_Sasuke groaned, remembering the reason he had woken up, still feeling it. He tried to sit up, while looking down his sheets. A couple of weeks ago he had woken up with the same thing happening. Except this time he could remember what he had been dreaming about, and… he stared at the sheets, which were wet._

_He wasn't sure why recently he had started dreaming about that kiss with Naruto back when he was 12, but when waking up after having such a dream, he always felt happy and some other strange feeling he couldn't quite place. This morning his happiness however, had taken shape, which it had never done before._

_Feeling slightly uncomfortable, even though his stomach was still churning excitedly, he slowly tried to move out of the bed, but the motions rubbed against his sensitive erection, making him stop. His breath hitched. He shivered from pleasure. He was lost; he didn't know what to do._

_Then the door opened, and Sasuke quickly pulled up his legs, turning red in an instant._

"_Ah, you're awake," Itachi said, stepping in, noticing Sasuke sit on his bed, blushing... "Oh." This made Sasuke blush even more._

"_Well, the shower is free," he said as if he told people that all the time, "I'm going to bed." Sasuke thought for a moment that he saw Itachi smile before he closed the door. "Night," it sounded at the other side._

_Sasuke let his head fall onto his knees, giving a frustrated and embarrassed sigh. "I hate you," he muttered softly into his knees._

-x-

Three months had passed since their excursion to the inn. A lot had changed, or so Sasuke thought. Naruto had said nothing about Sasuke's confession, and neither had Sasuke. It was there, but it wasn't driving them apart. On the contrary, ever since Sasuke had opened up to Naruto he had found out that he could talk much easier to the blond. They still fought, like always, that would probably never change, but slowly they had really become friends.

Naruto no longer saw Sasuke only as a rival, no longer thought he hated him. They talked, not that much, but a lot more than they had once done; though it was mostly Naruto that did the talking. Naruto had even invited Sasuke over once when he had found out Itachi was out of town. Never would Sasuke go over to Naruto's place again, seeing his messy, dirty and above all dusty room and apartment. Instead he invited Naruto over to _his_ home, making sure he knew how a properly cleaned house looked like.

Naruto and Hinata had made things up, proceeding their 'dating' as they had done before. This was the only thing that still pained Sasuke. Naruto ignored his confession, became friends instead (nothing wrong with that at all, he had just hoped for more), and had walked away with Hinata.

And so it came that Sasuke was sitting at Sakura's house, eating dinner with her family. He had thought maybe he should try liking Sakura, seeing Naruto was doing the same, and since she tried so hard, but he had never intended to be invited to her house immediately after he had asked her if she was hungry.

Grumpily staring in front of him, he tried to hide his frown every time Mr. or Mrs. Haruno looked at him, smiling. Making sure he would ignore Sakura all day tomorrow if he survived this, maybe make her break a nail or two (killing was not his style), was all that kept Sasuke from running off right then and there… Oh, and his good manners.

"So glad to have you over," Sakura's mother said again, smiling at him.

"Hn."

"Sakura is always talking about you, Sasuke-kun this, Sasuke-kun-"

"Mo~m!" Sakura warned her, placing dessert on the table. She looked over to Sasuke as her mother walked to the kitchen. "Just ignore her," she told him.

Sasuke watched Sakura as she walked over to the kitchen too, her hands filled with empty pots and pans.

"She's a real bother," Mr. Haruno told Sasuke, who looked around at the man to his right, and saw him chuckle. "Just like her mother, but she sure can cook." He smiled.

Sasuke moved away ever so slowly, not sure what to say to the man, feeling more and more uncomfortable by the minute.

"Oh, Sakura-chan, you sure have outdone yourself this time," her mother said, putting down a tray.

"Don't call me Sakura-chan," Sakura whispered to her mother, "You never do!"

Her mother giggled, putting down bowls with ice-cream in front of everyone.

"I'm so sorry," Sakura told Sasuke once more that evening. And once more, Sasuke wished he was dead… not for real; though lying in a coffin sure was a lot more appealing than sitting here with Sakura's parents.

Sakura's mother sat down and kept smiling at Sasuke. A shiver ran down Sasuke's spine. He would have to eat the ice fast, and then tell Mr. and Mrs. Haruno he needed to go. That was the plan. Simple, but… it just _had_ to work.

-x-

Sasuke sighed as he walked through the dark streets on his way home. His plan had worked, partly. Sakura's parents had somehow talked him over into at least going upstairs to go see Sakura's bedroom (for some strange reason Sasuke couldn't comprehend), while they would clean up the dishes.

First of all, Sakura's bedroom looked like a normal bedroom; nothing special. A little too much decoration to Sasuke's taste, but he just like plain and ordinary, everyone has his/her own taste. (At least she had a clean room in contrast to Naruto's).

Second of all, Sasuke doubted if her parents were really doing the dishes instead of lying in front of their daughter's bedroom door. Either way, Sasuke and Sakura had just talked for a bit, nothing special, nothing fancy. Sakurahad been apologizing a lot about her parents, but he deserved the apologies, so Sasuke didn't complain.

Finally, after an hour, Sasuke had been able to set foot outside, and a door was closing behind him.

Maybe this was partly why he liked Naruto. He didn't have any relatives at all, no one to bother him, to ask stupid questions… His shoulders slumped. He was just making up excuses. He shouldn't be comparing Sakura to Naruto, it wasn't fair. They were so different.

He wondered if he could ever love anyone beside Naruto. Maybe love was not reserved for him; maybe it was better this way. He could focus on becoming a ninja, working up to become an ANBU.

However, a stinging pain in his chest told him otherwise, but he would just need to get over it. Naruto was doing the same. He liked Hinata and she liked him. They were cute together, something not even Sasuke could deny.

He just would have liked to become more than just friends; to do more than just 'hanging out' after training every now and then. He was glad they were at least in the same team, seeing each other every day, either on the field or at school.

He was thankful he could be more open to Naruto, like there was a heavy veil lifted and showed Naruto his past; it was a burden falling off his shoulders. Naruto had done the same to him as well, they could tell what troubled them, but most importantly they could laugh and be happy around each other, for real.

Naruto understood him like no one else… okay, beside Itachi; beside family. Their fighting had not become les, but their training sessions had improved in teamwork. Sasuke could actually predict five times out of ten what Naruto was planning to do (which was a real achievement, seeing Naruto's unpredictable nature). Naruto was also starting to see in what way Sasuke worked on the field. It felt good to be able to work as a real team.

Sasuke had never expected he would think something like that. He couldn't believe this all had come forth out of a one week excursion through hell (and through hell it had certainly been). Naruto sometimes was still weary on touching him, but Sasuke could live with that (not really, but he tried). At least he looked him in the eyes again, it had taken a few weeks, but Sasuke wasn't even bothered by it anymore.

He kicked a rock onto the street. It was late, already dark, but otherwise Sasuke would have liked to visit Naruto, and tell him about his evening at Sakura's home. Naruto would make him laugh about his stiffness, doing impressions of how he thought Sasuke had been like around Sakura's parents. He would ask Sakura tomorrow how she was able to keep her sanity, or tell her how bored Sasuke had been, much to the raven's annoyance.

He would like that, he would like to see the blond, but it was too late. He better head home.

As Sasuke looked up, he noticed someone standing at the bridge, staring at him. A small smile appeared on his face as he walked over to the bridge.

It was like he had known.

-x-

Naruto sat on the railing of a bridge, moving his legs back and forth as he looked down into the water.

In the reflection he saw yellow hair, two blue eyes, orange clothing and a hand resting on top of his. Beside him a dark-haired person was sitting, looking at him and smiling, clothed in dark and white clothing. The water showed no details, but Naruto could fill them in with his memory.

"I like the moon," the soft voice beside him said.

Naruto looked up too. "Hm, yes it's so bright, yet so pale."

Hinata looked over to him, not in the reflection, but at the actual person beside her. "Aren't you cold?" she asked.

Naruto looked down upon her. "No, are you?"

A shiver was the answer. Naruto smiled and moved closer, laying his arm around the girl's shoulder. "Better?" he asked, noticing the short distance between their faces.

"Yes," Hinata smiled.

Blushing, Naruto looked into Hinata's eyes. Ever since she had kissed him they had not tried again, neither of them. Maybe she was waiting for him to take the first step; wanting to be sure he was ready.

Nervously Naruto smiled. He was ready, he would show her last time was a mistake, his mistake. He would make up for it this time, right now.

Closing the distance between them, Naruto carefully touched Hinata's lips. He wasn't sure when to pull away again, afraid the kiss would be too short and disappointing, or too long and sticky. However, he would not need to worry about it, since Hinata was the one to pull back.

She looked up at him, a pink blush covering her cheeks.

"I'm sorry for last time," Naruto muttered.

"It's alright," Hinata said, but somehow it didn't reach her eyes. She looked sad.

"I really am!"

"I know, I believe you."

Naruto's face fell. "Was it that bad?" he asked, moving away from her.

"What was?" Hinata asked confused.

"The kiss?" Naruto mumbled.

"No, it wasn't, it's just…" her voice died down.

Naruto looked up. "Just what?" he asked, some fear was inside his voice.

"It's just that you don't love me," she told him. "Your heart is somewhere else." She laid her hand on Naruto's chest.

"What?" He hadn't expected her to say that.

Hinata smiled, not really sincerely, but beside the sadness in her smile she was really happy for him. "Sasuke is the one you should be with."

Naruto's eyes grew. "What?"

"He really likes you."

"How-how do you know?" Naruto asked stunned.

Hinata bit her lip. "The day after I kissed you for the first time, I talked to Sasuke. I asked him if he thought you liked me." Naruto was surprised about this. "He told me," Hinata looked into Naruto's eyes, "that you care for me."

"He did?" Naruto asked.

Hinata nodded. "When I looked up into his eyes I saw it. The way he feels about you." Hinata's hand moved from Naruto's chest to his shoulder. "He really loves you."

"Loves me?" Naruto asked stunned.

"Yes, he loves you."

"But… but I…" Naruto looked down, away from Hinata.

"And you like him," she told Naruto.

Naruto stared back into Hinata's soft purple colored eyes. "I do?"

"You do."

"But… I don't love him?"

"Not yet." Hinata smiled. "But you will."

"I will?" Naruto felt like a child talking to an adult that knew a lot more, that had seen the world; the good and the bad in it.

"Naruto-kun, don't worry. I know that you really do care for me, and you even tried to like me, perhaps even love me, but you don't. It's not your fault, it just is. But I know now that your heart doesn't long for me. The two of you somehow seem… connected." Hinata laid her hand on Naruto's cheek, making him look at her once more, making sure he understood her words. "Don't be afraid of his love for you, accept it, and be yourself. You will see what will happen."

"I… I don't know what to say. You've been so kind to me." Before he realized it, a tear was falling down his cheek. "I never wanted to hurt yo-"

"You didn't. I liked spending time with you, and I'm sure we still will. You're not hurting me at all. I'm sad, yes, but also happy; happy for you."

"You really are the best, Hinata-chan." Naruto hugged her, not believing she was still so kind to him, even now.

Hinata let go of him and stood up. "Go and tell him."

-x-

He sat across Itachi at the small counter dividing the room into kitchen and living room. His brother had been the one waiting for him at the bridge, grinning at him. On their walk back home, they hadn't spoken a single word. Quietly moving on.

"So, how was your date?" Itachi asked, still grinning at him.

"It wasn't a date, I told you."

"But you met her parents, didn't you? A bit early on a first date, I must admit, but-"

"It WASN'T a date!" Sasuke grumbled, hating his brother.

"Was it that bad? I know parents-in-law can be overwhelming, especially when meeting them for the first time, but-" Itachi stopped when he saw the look on his little brother's face.

"At least now I'm sure I can't date girls," Sasuke said, turning away, planning to go to his bed.

"You what?" Itachi asked surprised. "Really?" He sat up straight.

Realizing his mistake, Sasuke moved on, not wanting to confront Itachi right now about it, but Itachi had always been faster than him.

"Who's the lucky boy?" he asked, blocking the younger raven's way.

"Who said anything about a boy?" Sasuke moved backward, trying to find all possible options to avoid Itachi.

"You just did, you said you can't date girls."

"Doesn't mean I like boys," Sasuke turned around, dodging Itachi's arm before running into the other.

"Oh, I never said anything about boys; just one."

"There's nothing going on. Let me pass, I'm tired!"

Itachi smirked. "Not yet, huh?" he asked with a little too much joy in his voice.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Thinking it was best not to say anything from now on, Sasuke got free from Itachi's grip, and headed for the window instead: escape option #2. However, Itachi knew Sasuke quite well, anticipating all his next moves, and was already blocking his escape before Sasuke had taken two strides.

"You will bring him over, will you? I think I at least deserve the introduction, being his brother-in-law…"

"Shut up," Sasuke grumbled, pushing Itachi onto the couch. Grumpily he moved to his bed room. This time Itachi wasn't planning on thwarting him, he had said what he had wanted to say.

Smiling, the older raven lay down on the couch. "My little brother is growing up," he said proudly.

-oXo-


	3. Chapter 3

**A Dark Cloud and a Bright Sun**

Chapter 3:

_Sasuke held a cloth against his nose, trying to stop the flow of blood. Maybe it was broken, he didn't think so, but it wouldn't stop bleeding. He could feel the cut in his lip stinging as he moved his tongue over it, and he was sure he had several bruises adorning his torso, one of which he could feel painfully on his hip._

_He looked up to the boy who had caused him to look like this, standing opposite him, while getting a speech form their sensei. Naruto wasn't looking much better, worse actually. He had a black eye, his lip was fat, but had stopped bleeding not that long ago. He had a few cuts in his ear, missed a few blond spikes, and was hopping as his leg was hurt. His clothes had a lot of cuts, much like Sasuke's shirt._

_It had started as a normal fight, an argument like usual, but somehow the argument had evolved into an all-out fight. Only when Kakashi had come, who had separated the two, they had stopped._

_Still clearly feeling the pain in his hip, he glared at the blond, who sent him glares of his own. Kakashi was done talking, and told them to go home, get some rest, and think about what they had done. Huffing, Naruto walked away. Sasuke followed him with his eyes, his glare, until he felt Kakashi stare at him. He shortly looked up to the jounin before turning around and walking home as well._

_Limping slightly, his hip aching with every step he took, Sasuke tried to keep his back straight, even while holding a cloth against his nose, as he walked down the street. Finally he got home. Closing the door behind him, he kicked out his sandals before entering the living room/ kitchen. Only to find Itachi looking up at him from the couch, lazily hanging over it in full ANBU gear._

"_What happened?" he asked, sitting up when he saw Sasuke limp over to the fridge._

"_Hn."_

"_You didn't have a mission," Itachi stated._

_Sasuke ignored his brother, trying to get some ice with one hand before letting it clatter to the ground. He grumbled in irritation._

_Itachi walked over to him, picked up the ice and folded it in a towel. He handed it to Sasuke, who grumpily took it from him, and watched Sasuke sit down on a stool at the counter dividing the kitchen and the living room. _

_Sasuke lifted his shirt, showing a bruised side, and held the ice against it, hissing and wincing._

_Itachi watched him for a moment before walking around the counter, sitting down on the other side. "Had a fight with your teammate?" he asked, even though he was quite sure he already knew the answer._

"_Hn. The dobe thought he could win."_

"_Ah, but he didn't?"_

_Sasuke glared at his brother. "Kakashi stopped us." He moved the now red cloth from his nose, inspecting if it was still bleeding. He could feel the blood coming down again, and held the cloth back against his nose._

"_That's not going to help." Itachi stood up and got a clean cloth for him. _

_Sasuke removed the old cloth when he saw Itachi held out a new one to him. Itachi laid the clean one on Sasuke's nose and, as he pinched it, moved his head back. "Otherwise it will never stop bleeding."_

_Sasuke grumbled, and Itachi let go. "I'll go take a shower. You think you can handle yourself?"_

"_Go away."_

_Itachi smiled. "You are always so joyful after a fight." He walked away to the bathroom._

_When he returned fifteen minutes later, Sasuke was lying on the couch, his head leaning back while looking at the ceiling. His nose had stopped bleeding._

_Itachi sat down in the chair beside Sasuke; looking his little brother over. _

"_Itachi?" Sasuke suddenly asked, not turning his head away from the ceiling._

"_Yes?"_

"_You ever…" He thought carefully what to ask. "You ever wonder what it would be like if mom and dad were still alive?"_

"_Yes."_

"_You think things would have been different?"_

"_Of course."_

_Sasuke sat up, looking over to Itachi. "A lot?"_

_Itachi looked Sasuke over before answering. "In what way do you mean?"_

_Sasuke shrugged. "Of course it would be different in the house, but… do you think you would have made different decisions even outside the house like, let's say, on the field or during training?"_

"_I think so, yes. I make my decisions more carefully now, because I need to get home safe. Back to you."_

_Sasuke stared at him before lowering his head. "Thanks for everything."_

_Itachi smiled. "You're my little brother, I love you." He ruffled through Sasuke's hair with his hand. "It's only natural I take care of you."_

_Sasuke looked up. "I _can_ take care of myself."_

"_It's already been 6 years since they died. You were still very young." Itachi grinned. "But I'm not so sure you would be able to take care of yourself just yet, 14 is still so young-"_

"_I can," Sasuke retorted, puffing his cheeks._

"_Haha, sure." He pulled his hand back from Sasuke's hair, waving it in front of his face. "Man, you reek, better go take a shower. Or do you still need help with that?"_

_Sasuke frowned. "Haha," he said mockingly, standing up. When he passed Itachi he hit him in the shoulder._

-x-

A week had passed, but Naruto hadn't told Sasuke anything yet. Two weeks had passed, and Naruto started to wonder if Hinata had been right about him liking Sasuke. Three weeks had passed, and Naruto felt something itching inside him. He needed to tell Sasuke, even though he didn't know yet if what Hinata had said was true, but he needed to tell someone; at least about them having broken up.

Naruto swung his arm, trying to scratch Sasuke with his kunai, but Sasuke blocked it with his katana.

How could Hinata tell him he liked Sasuke, without him even knowing if it was true? How could she tell that he liked Sasuke? That he liked… a boy?

Sakura kicked Naruto in his side. His hands moved to his hurt side while throwing a kunai at her. Sasuke came from behind Sakura, grabbing her arm and pulling her away. Then he turned to Naruto, who tried to stand up straight again, and swung his katana around.

Naruto ducked, lunged at Sasuke's midriff, but Sasuke elegantly turned away, doing some hand signs, and fired a Katon jutsu at Sakura. When he had completed his turn, facing Naruto again, they started a hand-to-hand fight.

It was true that they had become friends in the last couple of months, and that Naruto liked it a lot to have a friend like Sasuke. He was always happy when Sasuke invited him over when Itachi was away on a mission. He liked spending time with him, but did he like the raven?

Naruto hated it that he wasn't sure about what love was. When did 'thinking someone is nice' turn into 'liking him'? How did that happen, and how could one know that it had happened? When he looked at Hinata, he was sure he liked her, but she told him he cared for her; that he didn't liked her the way he liked Sasuke.

Naruto had been thinking about this the entire week, not sure if he would ever find the answer. He wanted to be sure that Hinata was right before he could tell Sasuke anything at all.

For three weeks he had been mulling this over, until he woke up this morning, covered in sweat and his heart beating rapidly. The dream had been so realistic that when he had woken up he had needed at least five minutes to find out that it hadn't been real.

Shaking his head, he focused on the fight with Sasuke. They had been fighting with the three of them, but slowly Sasuke and Naruto had pushed Sakura out of the fight, concentrating only on the fight with the other boy.

Naruto glanced to the side, seeing Sakura standing there beside Kakashi with crossed arms. She said something to Kakashi, but Naruto couldn't hear.

Ducking, avoiding Sasuke's leg, Naruto tried to tackle him. Sasuke evaded by standing on his hands, trying to kick Naruto in the same motion, while he finished his handstand and landed on his feet.

A hand moved over to him, closer to his face, but not touching it. The light skin was lit in the pale moonlight, weakly shining through a small slit in the curtains. The hand moved further, stroking his hair; first hesitantly, but soon confident enough to pull through his spikes. He liked it; it tickled, sent small sparkles down his spine. It stopped. The hand shivered, it moved closer to his cheek, as if it was deciding if it could touch it, or should let it be.

It touched his skin nonetheless, still shaking ever so slightly. Naruto could almost feel the nervous tension. He had first thought it had come from him, but now he knew the person lying beside him was the one sending the vibes.

He could feel the face of the other come closer and graze his lips with his once, and then again. This time it wasn't so gracefully, but Naruto didn't struggle, in fact he leant into it. His hands reached up for the face of the other. He opened his eyes, dark coal colored eyes looked back at him, tenderly.

That was when he had woken up.

Naruto tripped over his own feet, he should be concentrating on his fight, not on a stupid dream.

-o-

Sasuke had noticed the change in Naruto in the last couple of weeks. After Sasuke had told him he liked the blond, the first day Naruto had avoided him, and ever since then had tried to push everything away, like it had never happened. He had ignored it and had moved on; building up a friendship without the confession standing in the way, but it had stayed at that, a friendship.

Sasuke pulled out his katana, blocking a swing aimed at him.

In the last couple of weeks Sasuke had noticed Naruto had changed from ignoring, pretending it had never happened, to acting strange, being uncomfortable. Sasuke knew why he had been acting differently. While Sakura and Kakashi just thought Naruto had some issues with Hinata (which was partly true, but Sasuke didn't know that), Sasuke could tell he had finally began to think over what Sasuke had told him.

While he hadn't been looking Sasuke in the eye before, he did now, but was always looking for answers when he looked into the black orbs. He was wary of touching Sasuke, even when arguing. He had finally started to realize what Sasuke's words had meant.

It frightened Sasuke; he was afraid their new friendship might disappear, that Naruto would pull away and go back to the rivalry.

He grasped Sakura's arm, and threw her away from his fight with Naruto, she was in the way. Getting his katana once more, he swayed it around at the blond, who skillfully dodged it and jumped up to him.

Sasuke avoided it by sidestepping, while he did so, he turned around. He needed Sakura to stay away, so he did some quick hand signs and blew a giant fireball at her. Completing his rotation, Sasuke jumped closer to Naruto.

When he noticed Naruto glance over to the side, Sasuke did so too, his red eyes seeing Sakura mouthing the words 'are they having a fight again? They keep pushing me out,' to Kakashi. Kakashi shrugged, 'who knows'.

Sasuke turned his attention back to Naruto, smirking. He wasn't pushing Sakura away on purpose. He just somehow felt Naruto needed to take something out on him, and he needed to do the same to Naruto. Sakura was in the way, and thus the both of them had pushed her out. The fighting was their way of talking, it was the only way they had communicated all those years, and they still did.

Sasuke knew Naruto had never really noticed this, but he was sure that unconsciously he had always known about their conversations. When Naruto hit him in the shoulder, it meant he couldn't stand it that Sasuke had never told him anything before. When Sasuke grazed Naruto's side with a kunai, it meant he had wanted to say something sooner, but hadn't known how to do so. The answer was a fist in his gut, telling him he had never even tried, and asking him how the blond could have ever known there was more to their fights than just a fight, an argument.

Sasuke aimed a kick at Naruto, 'I'm sorry', but Naruto avoided it, 'I still don't know what to think'. The blond hunched down and instead tried to tackle Sasuke. Sasuke evaded by making a handstand, trying to kick Naruto while he did so. 'You've been thinking about it for over four months now!' As he landed, Naruto wanted to attack him, but instead tripped.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow; he wasn't sure what that meant. Naruto's dictionary could be a bit vague at times.

At first Sasuke wanted to take use of the moment and kick Naruto against his shoulder, but at the last moment decided against it. Instead he jumped away, backward, preparing for a fire jutsu. He realized he was angry at Naruto for taking so long, for making him wait, ignoring him and then confusing him. He realized he wanted Naruto's answer… now!

Taking a deep breath, gathering chakra in his lungs, Sasuke brought his hand up, moving it to his mouth, ready to fire not a giant fireball, but a gigantic one.

Right then Naruto appeared right in front of him, his nose almost touching the raven's. Sasuke's eyes widened when his Sharingan predicted Naruto's next movements. Stunned he took a step back, but he couldn't. Pinned to a tree, Naruto moved further forward, closing the distance between them, and made the Sharingan's prediction come true.

Soft lips pressed against Sasuke's, shaking hands gripped his shirt tightly. Sasuke saw the red blush deepen on Naruto's whiskered cheeks. He saw how he looked up almost desperately? Maybe hopeful? His blue eyes were slightly confused before they closed.

Still feeling the hands gripping his shirt, Sasuke moved up his own hands to Naruto's arms, nervously gripping his shoulders. He felt like he was on fire, maybe his jutsu really had set him on fire, he didn't know, but he was certain that he liked everything about it. His stomach made happy flips, butterflies swirling inside him.

And the best part of all was that not only Naruto had kissed _him,_ but that he wasn't pulling away at all; in fact Sasuke was sure the grip on his shirt tightened and the kissing became more intense.

Moving his hand into Naruto's hair, Sasuke pressed his mouth closer to Naruto's lips, feeling his tongue move against his own.

This was a dream come true, he had never expected Naruto's answer to be like this; he truly was unpredictable in every way.

-x-

Sakura's mouth fell open when she saw Naruto pin Sasuke against the tree. Kakashi's eyebrow rose when they kissed.

"What are they-?" Sakura asked breathlessly, unable to comprehend what her eyes were seeing.

Kakashi looked down at the poor girl. He was as much surprised as she was, maybe less as the impact wasn't as worse for him as for her. "I guess… we found out what made them so itchy the last months," Kakashi told the girl.

-x-

After what felt like an eternity, Naruto slowly pulled back from Sasuke, looking down between them; his hand still clutching the blue shirt, while trying to catch his breath.

Sasuke, pink blush of his own adorning his face, felt his chest rage under Naruto's grip. His hand was still resting on the back of Naruto's head, nervously playing with the short hairs in his neck, but Naruto wasn't looking up. Biting his lip, Sasuke waited for Naruto to heave his head, to meet his dark eyes.

"I… I think I like you," Naruto muttered to Sasuke's shirt.

Sasuke opened his mouth a little, but no words were formed. He had wanted to hear that for so long, that he had no idea what to do when it was really said to him.

"Maybe you want to try…" Naruto looked up, "to be more than friends?" he asked uncertain.

Sasuke felt like laughing, he needed to do something or he was sure the happiness inside him would burst free, fuelling the unfinished fire jutsu.

"If _I_ want to try?" he asked, grinning. "I though the question was if _you_ wanted to try?"

Naruto turned a deeper shade of red, before looking away. "I just… I just said that," he mumbled embarrassed.

Sasuke was sure he had never before wanted to smile like he did now. "I would like that," he answered Naruto's question.

Naruto had started fidgeting with Sasuke's shirt, which Sasuke found was a nice feeling. "But," Naruto looked up shortly before looking back at his hands. "But, I still need to get used to this… so… so…" Sasuke patiently waited for Naruto to find the right words, he knew Naruto's head must feel like it was only filled with cotton, just as much as it did to him, if not more so. "So let's… let's take small steps." He bit his lip.

Sasuke couldn't help but grin. Naruto was the one kissing him, and then asked _him_ to take small steps. He obviously had no idea what a huge step he had just made.

Naruto noticed Sasuke grinning and looked up. "What?"

"Nothing, I'm just…"

"Happy?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"I think so, yes."

Naruto smiled. "I think I am too."

-x-

After the initial shock had subsided, after feeling like they were being watched, realizing this was true, they let go of each other as if an electrical shock had run through their bodies. Blushing madly, avoiding anyone's look, most of all that of the other, they stood there, not moving away, not moving closer.

Kakashi spoke up, "Maybe it's time for some theory today after all. I think the education of sex would be-"

Naruto turned scarlet out of embarrassment, yelled "I hate you", and ran away. Leaving a smirking Kakashi and an alarmed Sasuke behind, who had no idea what to do now that Naruto had run off.

"Maybe a bit too early," Kakashi smiled, turning to his book, standing there as if nothing special was going on.

Sakura was still staring at Sasuke, which he didn't appreciate very much. So, turning to his normal self, his hands sliding into his pockets, he walked off the field, going home.

Sitting at the counter of the small bar on the living room side, Sasuke had his head laid down on his crossed arms. He wondered if he should go after Naruto or should let him be for the moment. Maybe he wanted to be alone right now; Sasuke could understand. It was just hard to wait; to do nothing.

All this time had he been staring at the fridge, only now noticing a note was stuck to it. Slowly he stood up and walked around the counter, getting the note from the fridge. His eyes narrowed the more he read.

'_I'm back later today._

_Still need groceries._

_Be a good little brother._

_-Itachi_

_p.s. If you bring him over, we need extra food.'_

Pulling up his nose, Sasuke crushed the paper in his hand. Throwing it in the corner, he picked up the list Itachi had made. He had nothing to do anyways.

Slowly he made his way to the shop, feeling the happiness inside again as the soft breeze hit his face. Maybe he should pay Naruto a visit after all. Quickly getting everything he needed, he went to Naruto's apartment.

Knocking a couple of times, he patiently waited, but the door didn't open. Sasuke looked around, but saw no one. Then he tried the doorknob. The door was open, so he decided to enter. What he found inside was even worse than what he had expected to find. Naruto was like a squirrel or something, building a nest.

Covering his mouth for all the dust floating around (really, that's not normal) he followed the narrow path guiding him through the small apartment. A single glance into the living room and open kitchen showed Naruto wasn't there. And neither was he in the bedroom or bathroom. Did he lock his door at all?

Sasuke shoved some stuff aside to put the plastic bags down. Should he wait for Naruto to return? He decided it wouldn't harm him, having enough time. He wanted to sit down, but changed his mind when seeing all the junk on the chair.

After 20 minutes of waiting Sasuke was afraid he would kill himself if he stayed any longer in this toxic environment, and thus decided to clean up. First shoving everything on a big heap to one side of the living room, he cleaned the kitchen and the other half of the living room. About three hours later (he was so glad Naruto had a small apartment) he had finished that and had started sorting through the heap of junk.

Not believing he hadn't even finished half the apartment yet (not that he intended to clean the bedroom and bathroom after finishing the living room), he finished the living room and fell down on the old couch. Five hours to clean just the kitchen and living room; absurd, and that was actually working at a fast pace.

Exhausted Sasuke closed his eyes, sweat thick on his forehead.

-x-

When Naruto got home, he walked into the apartment before walking out of the it again right away, thinking he had taken a wrong turn somewhere. Standing in front of his door, he couldn't believe he was at the right address. Entering the insanely clean (to him, to any other person it would look normal) room almost blinded him. He looked around the kitchen and living room, noticing the cause of the neatness in his house lying asleep on the couch.

-x-

Sasuke felt someone standing in front of him, so he decided to open his eyes. Blue was all he could see, and as a natural reaction Sasuke pulled away, hitting his head against the wall.

"Ah." Wincing, he rubbed his sore head. Why Naruto liked to do that, look at him from such a close distance while he slept was beyond him.

"You sure did your best," Naruto said, looking around. "Must have taken you at least half the day."

Sasuke looked around too, letting his hand fall in his lap. "Hn."

Naruto looked back. "What are you doing here? I thought you didn't like coming here."

"I don't mind coming here, it's your…" Sasuke tried to find a polite word, "untidiness that scares me off."

"Oh. Aha, I see." Naruto turned to the bedroom door. "You didn't…" he pointed to the door.

"Didn't had time, nor do I dare to go in there."

"You don't?" Naruto asked, sitting down beside him.

"It can only be worse than here."

Naruto grinned, scratching the back of his head. "Haha, that might be true."

"You better take care of that." Sasuke sat up, looking to Naruto.

Naruto looked back, and just like Sasuke had no idea what to say. Luckily this was Naruto, so he couldn't keep quiet for very long. "You want some ramen?" he grinned.

"Hn, sure." He didn't really like the cup ramen Naruto sometimes took along to training, but cleaning up had made him very hungry.

When Naruto stood in the kitchen, waiting for the water to start boiling, he noticed the white plastic bags. "Don't tell me you did the groceries too?"

"It's not for you."

"Ah." Naruto took out two pairs of chopsticks (very clean ones, he noted) out of his drawer and placed them on the only table in his apartment, standing in front of the couch. "You first went home?"

"Yes."

"Was… was Itachi home?"

"No."

Naruto silently turned away, pouring the hot water into the cups, and took them to the couch, placing them on the low table. Sitting on the floor he glanced over to Sasuke.

"Where have you been?" Sasuke asked, finding it strange how Naruto kept glancing at him while keeping quiet.

"Me? Oh, I wondered through the forest for some time." He shrugged. Then he turned to Sasuke. "You told anyone-" he turned back to his ramen without finishing his sentence. "Never mind."

"It makes you nervous?" Sasuke asked softly, blowing over the hot ramen.

"It does." Naruto turned to Sasuke. "You're not?" Sasuke shrugged. "I was planning on going to Iruka-sensei tonight, but now… I think I'll stay home." Naruto looked sadly at his food.

"Why? What are you afraid of?"

"I don't know. I'm sure he will notice there's something going on, and I'm positive I'll just blurt it out." Naruto slumped down.

Sasuke grinned. "I see."

"How would you tell Itachi?" Naruto asked, stirring the noodles.

"I guess I won't have to. He's so…" Sasuke sighed. "He already knows."

Naruto blushed. "He does? For how long?"

"Don't worry, he doesn't know it's you."

Naruto let out a sigh of relieve. "But… if you had to tell him?"

"I wouldn't."

"You… wouldn't?"

"No, he would find out anyway, he's too… I guess he knows me too well." Sasuke leant back, eating the ramen he didn't fancy. Seeing Naruto was not eating, he leant forward. "You don't have to tell him now."

"Huh? What? Who?" Naruto asked panicked.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes after rolling them, and slid down to the ground. "Don't tell Iruka yet. Wait till you feel more comfortable."

"Oh, right." Naruto fished up some noodles and started eating.

Sasuke glanced over to Naruto. He remembered how he liked to watch Naruto, see him eat his ramen; he sure liked that food, inhaling it.

When he was done Naruto put down the empty cup and burped. "Aaah, I needed that."

Sasuke continued his eating civilly, like he was used to do, while watching Naruto. "There's-" He moved to Naruto, who pulled back, but Sasuke leant further. He moved his hand over Naruto's cheek, getting some leftover ramen from his face.

When Sasuke had returned to his own food, Naruto was still watching him. Slowly his hand went up to his cheek.

"Uh, thanks?"

Sasuke smiled at him. "Dobe."

-x-

_Sasuke leant against a tree, holding his left arm. It was bleeding and he knew it was broken. Sliding down, he started to feel dizzy. He had lost more blood than he had thought._

_Sloppily he tried to get some bandages from his pouch, but he couldn't find it. Slumping down, he noticed his vision got hazy. He should have stopped running earlier._

_Before his shoulder left the tree, he was caught by small hands._

"_You moron, you shouldn't have run this far while bleeding like this," an angry voice told him before he lost consciousness._

_When he opened his eyes again, his first reaction was to move back, but he was still sitting against the tree, so he hit his head against the trunk._

_The clear blue eyes, staring at him from mere centimeters of his face, narrowed. "You like hurting yourself, don't you?"_

_Sasuke pushed Naruto away before grasping his left arm in pain. He winced._

"_I know I'm no medic like Sakura-chan," Naruto muttered, looking down at his poor handiwork. "But at least it's better than bleeding to death." _

"_Hn."_

"_A thank you would be nice." Naruto turned around, leaning against the same tree. "I radioed Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan our location. They will be here as soon as possible."_

_Sasuke groaned as his arm hurt._

"_Better not move too much, it was an open bone fracture," Naruto pulled a face, "Wasn't really nice to see, but I tried to make it better without making it worse."_

_Sasuke narrowed his dark eyes at the blond._

"_I _do_ know when to stop at situations like this," Naruto told the raved, pouting._

_Sasuke sighed, looking down at his painfully broken arm. Naruto had been right that he was no medic, but it actually looked better than Sasuke had fist thought… okay it didn't, it looked bad._

_He closed his eyes, letting his head rest against the tree, thinking Kakashi and Sakura would be there soon. _

_He should have known Naruto was not one to wait in silence. "What do you know about Hyuuga Hinata?" he asked, looking away from Sasuke._

_Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, not turning his head to Naruto. "That she is a Hyuuga, and possesses the Byakugan like all members of the main branch, which can-"_

"_Not about the Hyuuga, about Hinata personally."_

_Sasuke thought for a moment. "I don't know, I don't think I have ever talked to her."_

"_Ah, sorry, I forgot about your fear for girls."_

"_I don't have a fear for girls," Sasuke muttered, not feeling at that great._

"_Well, it sure looks like it, the way you avoid them like they have the plague."_

"_They are too clingy."_

"_To you they are. I'm more like the opposite polar of you. They stick to you, but-" Naruto sighed. "Maybe I really am the opposite polar, and that's why they move away from me; they just _can't get_ any closer."_

"_Hn," Sasuke said weakly._

_Naruto turned over to Sasuke. "Maybe we should trade polarity. With your fear, it would be better to-" He stopped, his eyes scanning Sasuke. "You look awfully pale, are you alright? Did you open the wound further? Are you in pain? Maybe I should give you some more painkillers." _

_Naruto started digging in his pouch, but didn't find a lot of medical stuff there. He turned to Sasuke. "Maybe it's better I checked yours," he said, reaching down behind Sasuke, which would have brought back at least a little bit of color to the raven's face if he wasn't in pain and slowly losing consciousness. _

_Naruto groped for the weapons pouch and pulled it from behind Sasuke, searching through it. "Where do you keep-?" he asked, looking through the organized pouch "Ah, there."_

_Sasuke groaned in pain, feeling some blood trickle down the corner of his mouth. Naruto noticed this too. "Shit! What did you do?" Panicky Naruto waved his hands. "Don't die!"_

"_Flying will surely not help him staying alive," a bored voice reached them._

_Naruto jumped up. "Who's there?" he called, with a kunai in hand and standing in front of Sasuke._

"_Calm down, Naruto," Kakashi said to him, stepping out of the bushes._

_Sakura came running out of the greenery behind the jounin, heading straight for Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun!" She knelt down beside the raven, her hands already getting the things she needed. "What did you do?" she asked him._

_Naruto thought she was blaming him. "Nothing! I tried to bandage him, make it a little better, but I didn't dare do much more-"_

"_I was asking Sasuke-kun."_

"_Oh."_

-x-

Two months had passed since their kiss. It was almost evening, and Sasuke and Naruto had decided to head over to Sasuke's place.

Laughing loudly, Naruto threw his sandals away and walked into the living room. Sasuke put his sandals down neatly before following Naruto into the room. Naruto was already sitting at the counter, to the side of the kitchen, watching Sasuke enter the room. His head was resting on his hands, only his eyes moving, watching every movement Sasuke made.

Sasuke noticed so, but pretended to ignore the blond as he walked over to the kitchen to get something to drink. Handing Naruto a glass, he walked back to the other side, and sat down. "Like what you see?"

"Maybe," Naruto said, grasping his glass.

While they emptied their glasses, nothing was said. However, as soon as Naruto's glass hit the table, his mouth opened.

"When I saw Iruka yesterday, he told me-" And so Naruto started a story. Sasuke didn't mind, he liked to listen. It was amazing how much Naruto could talk, and especially that he could come up with the material to keep going.

Sasuke was sure that if he would have to talk, he would be able to keep it up for an hour at most, with difficulty, and that would be it. Naruto had already been talking for an hour and a half, and still he kept going. Every now and then he asked something, but a short answer from Sasuke was enough to continue or come up with new subjects Sasuke sometimes saw no link to (in any form).

"So I told him if he would do that, I would-" suddenly Naruto stopped talking.

The both of them turned to the door as Itachi stood in the opening. "Ah, Naruto-kun, how nice to meet you."

Naruto looked over to Sasuke. He already knew Itachi, having seen him when he had sometimes waited for Sasuke after training. So Naruto was a bit confused by the introduction. "Um… Itachi?"

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, "I thought you had a mission."

"Me? Oh, yes. Did I forget to tell you it was a short one?"

Sasuke frowned. He couldn't believe his brother had planned this.

"Doesn't matter," Itachi turned to Naruto, "How nice to see Sasuke take a friend over."

Naruto smiled in response, not sure what to say. He looked over to Sasuke, seeing he was quite annoyed by Itachi's presence.

"You will stay over for dinner, right?"

"Um, sure, why no-" Naruto saw Sasuke's face, "-t?" He grinned at Sasuke.

"Wonderful." Itachi went over to the kitchen, starting to prepare dinner.

Slowly Naruto started talking again, proceeding his stories.

After half an hour or so, Itachi placed the food on the counter (their kitchen table) and sat down beside Naruto.

"You sure are a talkative person, Naruto-kun."

Naruto grinned, moving his hand to the back of his neck. "Yeah, I heard that before."

"You perfectly complete Sasuke in a lot of ways."

Naruto's face fell, and Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Complete?"

"Yes, in so many ways you are opposite to Sasuke, that if the two of you…" he smirked, "would get together, it would be perfect; you complete each other."

Naruto turned bright red, and looked over to Sasuke. "You told him?"

Sasuke would have liked to kick Naruto, if he had been able to do so. He looked up, knowing Itachi had already gotten his answer anyway. "I didn't."

"But you just did," Itachi smiled. He hugged Naruto, stunning both boys. "Welcome to the family."

As red as a beet, Naruto pushed Itachi away, who pretended everything was normal, like he hadn't just hugged Naruto, and finished his food.

"It would have been nice if you had told me, little brother."

"You know why I didn't."

Itachi looked up, hurt. "Why?"

"Because of this." Sasuke made a motion with his head to Naruto.

Seeing the red blond, Itachi smiled. "Did you kiss already? Have se-?"

Naruto pushed Itachi off the chair. "No!" he said shocked, not believing Itachi could be so bold.

"Not even a kiss?" he asked as he stood up. Both boys looked away. "That's so cute."

"It's not cute!" Sasuke told him angrily.

"What was it like?" He looked over to Naruto. "I bet he tastes like-"

Sasuke tackled his brother, bringing the both of them to the ground, Sasuke on top. He made sure he pinned him down. "Stop it."

Itachi made clear he surrendered. After Sasuke got off of him, they both sat down on their stools and finished eating.

Feeling kind of uncomfortable in the setting of the Uchiha family, Naruto tried to blend in somehow… by talking; which could hardly be called blending in.

However, as they all sat down in the living room, watching television and chatting, it actually felt quite normal. Sasuke was glad Itachi could also be normal to Naruto.

When Naruto thought he should better head home, Sasuke went with him, walking him home.

"I _am_ able to walk home alone," Naruto told Sasuke.

"I know, but I just like to be with you, without Itachi around."

"Ah," Naruto smiled.

"Hope he didn't… bother you too much."

"Of course not, he's kind. I like him."

"Hn."

"I can tell you're fond of him," Naruto grinned.

"Hn."

Naruto groped for Sasuke's hand, a blush creeping up his face again as he found the pale hand. Sasuke glanced over, seeing the blush, and smiled. He squeezed the hand once before looking back to where he was walking.

-x-

_Sasuke watched Naruto as his anger became worse, almost touchable. He didn't see Naruto really angry like this very often. He could swear Naruto's eyes were flaring red. He had no idea how, but he knew he had seen it right. He had seen it before, and like the last time, Naruto's whisker marks where thicker, his nails longer and he had actual fangs._

_But strangest of all was the red chakra cloak around him, and the tail it had formed. It was like he wore a coat of some animal. A rabbit, or a fox, Sasuke wasn't sure. All he knew was not to touch the red chakra, as it seemed to burn the rouge ninja. It was amazing how the chakra could act on its own._

_Sasuke wasn't sure what to do, this wasn't the Naruto he knew, the one he had observed for years, had fallen in love with, the one he had trained with, had studied all of his moves, the one he had kissed, the one who was his boyfriend. It was like it was Naruto, but also not. Sasuke thought he knew everything about Naruto, but apparently he did not. Not even during their talks after missions, or when they had been alone, had Naruto ever said anything about this._

_Sasuke watched how Naruto growled at the rouge ninja in front of them. Kakashi was fighting two other rouge ninjas further away, and Sakura had been healing so many people on their mission that she was still resting in the house they were staying over. She wouldn't have been able to do anything here anyway; she had been too exhausted, the poor girl._

_Naruto jumped at the man and actually bit him in the arm. The man swung him away before taking out a giant axe from a seal. Swinging it around skillfully he nearly hit Naruto a couple of times. _

_When Sasuke saw Naruto suddenly stop, grasping his arm in pain, he knew he had to interfere. Using a Chidori beside his katana to block the axe, Sasuke made sure Naruto got away before making himself scarce. This rouge jounin ninja was a specialist secret jutsu user. He was able to absorb chakra from elemental jutsus._

_Sasuke had dragged Naruto along until they were well hidden. Letting go of Naruto, looking down at his painfully burned hands, Naruto was almost about to take off again. Seeing no other way to get through to Naruto, Sasuke slapped him in the face. Regretting it immediately, as his hand burnt painfully. However, Naruto had come to his senses, looking at Sasuke as if he hadn't seen him in a while._

"_What are you doing, Naruto?" Sasuke asked, looking him over. "What… what is that?" he motioned to the red chakra._

_Naruto's eyes widened, before he looked down. Realizing what was going on, Naruto looked up to Sasuke again. "Did I hurt you?" he asked concerned, looking down at Sasuke's hands. _

"_I did that by choice," Sasuke muttered. "What is that?" he asked again._

_Naruto closed his eyes, trying to calm down; trying to forget the man that had angered him in the first place. It went quite well, seeing he was also concerned about Sasuke, and about what he would say. When the chakra cloak had dissolved, Naruto opened his eyes. They still had slit pupils, and the fangs weren't really gone either, but at least he was able to concentrate on Sasuke now._

"_I…" Naruto started, "I…" He bit his lip for a moment, opening his mouth quite soon thereafter as his long fangs hurt his lip. "After I was born, the Kyuubi, the Nine-tailed Fox, was sealed inside me." He looked down, afraid of Sasuke's reaction, he actually closed his eyes._

_Sasuke was speechless for some time. He had not expected anything like this, but when he thought it over, it made sense. "The Kyuubi," he repeated softly._

_Seeing Naruto's still hunched form, Sasuke reached out to him. "Why didn't you tell me before?"_

_Naruto looked up at the touch. "I don't know… Maybe because… I was afraid."_

"_Afraid of what? That I would hate you because of that? That I would leave you?"_

_Naruto shrugged._

"_You idiot!" Naruto jumped up at the sudden outburst. "I would never do that, and you know it!"_

"_I'm really sorry."_

_Sasuke frowned. "Let's talk about this later, there's a rouge ninja on our backs."_

_Naruto nodded._

"_And make sure you don't get angered by him again." Sasuke stood up, ready to tell Naruto his plan._

"_I'll try."_

-x-

Sasuke gripped the person beside him tighter, hugging his blond; pulling his back against his chest.

"Sasuke, I need…" Naruto said, sounding like he was out of air, "-to breathe."

"Hn." Sasuke didn't loosen up his grip around Naruto, laying his head against Naruto's.

"I mean it, Sasuke." Naruto tried to get some air, twisting in Sasuke's strong hug.

Sasuke sighed, letting his arm loosen up, without moving away or letting Naruto get free from his embrace.

Being able to breathe again, Naruto took a deep breath. Right thereafter he wiggled his arm free and pulled the blanket further his way. "You always steel the blanket."

"Sorry," Sasuke muttered into Naruto's ear, which tickled.

"And your feet are cold, move them away." Their feet had a small fight, as Naruto tried to move Sasuke's away, while Sasuke steadfastly kept them against Naruto's warm skin.

"If you warm them up, there will be nothing to complain about."

Naruto rolled his eyes, knowing he wouldn't win this. He never did. Instead he decided to make himself comfortable, nestling himself into the mattress and Sasuke, making sure the blanket was covering him.

Sasuke's hands started roaming over Naruto's bare chest when he had finally stopped moving. Tickling the blond, playing around, Sasuke kissed the tan shoulder.

Naruto shivered at the touch, grinning. "Sasuke!" he whispered.

Sasuke planted some more kisses on his neck and shoulder, while feeling the blond up on the other side.

"Sasuke!" Naruto whispered more urgently.

"Hn," Sasuke mumbled, sucking on his earlobe.

"Haah," Naruto breathed out in pleasure.

Then Sasuke teasingly moved his hands over the band of Naruto's swirly-patterned boxers. Plus he licked Naruto's ear, which he knew was a ticklish place for Naruto. This was once more confirmed when Naruto giggled.

"Sas!" Naruto tried to push Sasuke away from his ear. "Stop!" he whispered urgently.

But who was Sasuke to stop right when he had what he wanted firmly in his arms. His hand moved over the outside of Naruto's tights, slowly going to the inside.

Feeling the hands near his crotch, Naruto began to struggle more. Adding to his pleasure, Sasuke moved his leg over Naruto's. While his left hand was still moving on the inside of Naruto's leg, the other hand went up to reach for a nipple.

"Ah!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Could the two of you be a _little_ quieter?" Kakashi asked lazily, turning over in his bed.

Sasuke smirked. "Otherwise he won't be able to hear his own thoughts, while trying to go over his books in his head," he said. Normally Naruto would have sniggered, but instead a moan came from his mouth.

Kakashi sighed. "I get it, next time I'll ask for two rooms."

Oh, Kakashi hadn't understood Sasuke at all. He didn't mind sharing a room, as long as Kakashi kept quiet and let Sasuke do whatever he wanted to do to Naruto, it was fine by him. Naruto on the other hand, did prefer a room alone. Normally Sasuke would have chosen Naruto's side immediately. However, Naruto was so much more fun to tease when they had to share a room with someone else (hence the reason why Sasuke didn't mind Kakashi being around).

"Where have the times gone when you two were angry with me for giving you a room with only one bed?" Kakashi wondered aloud.

"It passed, over a year ago," Sasuke told him smartly.

"Oh, that's right, the anniversary must be close by," Kakashi grinned.

"Sasuke!" Naruto said again, while he struggled. The sound of skin rubbing against each other could be heard. "Stop doing that!"

Kakashi got up. "Okay, I'll leave. I'll go to the onsen for an hour. That should be long enough I think." He stood up and walked over to the door. "Do be safe, remember what I told you, and make sure you keep quiet when I return." He closed the door behind him.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled embarrassed, trying to sit up.

"Oh, come on, this is perfect."

"No it's not! Now I got the feeling Kakashi is spying on us. Go to sleep."

"But that's exciting, isn't i-"

"Ew, bah, Sasuke, stop it. Don't even say that!"

Sasuke grinned. He liked to rile Naruto up.

"Maybe we should head for the showers instead," he grinned into Naruto's ear.

"No, stop it, I'm tired."

"No, you're not," Sasuke said, his hand on top of Naruto's boxers. "I can tell," he whispered.

Naruto blushed. "Then stop touching me!"

"Now, why would I do that?"

"You're not listening to me at all," Naruto whined.

"I listen to you all the time."

"But not right now!"

"Just be quiet and listen to me instead," Sasuke whispered.

"Not here."

"You make it sound like I do this all the time," Sasuke pouted. "Like I force you into something you don't want."

"It's…" Naruto couldn't say 'true', because it wasn't. "Not here," he said again.

"Hm."

"Next week I'm all yours."

Sasuke cheered up. "Really?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Yes, my present to you."

"I love you," Sasuke hugged Naruto.

"Now, keep your hand off my crotch."

"Can't."

"But… I told you I'm all yours next week..."

"And I'm very happy about that."

"Then… _please_ remove your hand?" Naruto tried.

"Can't."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to."

"But… I'm. All. Yours. Next. Week," Naruto repeated slowly.

"Yes, I heard you the first two times."

"Then why?"

"It's not a bargain."

Naruto's face fell. "Not here," was his answer.

"Then let's go to the showers."

"Not there either!"

"I thought you didn't like Kakashi to be around… but if you want to go to the onsen… I guess-"

"NO!"

Sasuke smirked. "Ah, I see. I'm sorry Naruto, but you're the only one for me. I'm afraid I can't do that."

"What?" Naruto asked confused.

"I'm not going to Sakura's room."

Naruto's face was one of horror. Pushing Sasuke away with force, Naruto sat up. "What?"

Sasuke grinned, sitting up. "You're so cute when you are angry."

"I hate you," Naruto said, crossing his arms.

Sasuke's face fell, pouting. His lip actually quivered. Naruto had to do a double-take to notice that too. "Eh, Sasuke? Are you alright?"

"No, you hate me." He turned around, his back to Naruto.

"I… I didn't mean it," Naruto said softly, reaching for Sasuke's shoulder.

"You did," Sasuke said softly, hugging his knees.

"I really didn't. I'm sorry for saying that."

"I don't believe you."

"I really am sorry."

"Will you make up for it?"

Naruto stiffened, seeing where this was going. "No." He quickly lay down and pulled the blanket up, closing his eyes.

Sasuke was shocked about the sheer speed Naruto had done that.

"You're mean." Sasuke moved under the blanket as well, trying to hug Naruto again.

Another short struggle followed, and was won -once again- by Sasuke. Laying his head back on the place where it had been before, his hands as well, Sasuke smiled.

Thinking they still had enough time before Kakashi came back, Sasuke moved his left hand on Naruto's crotch, stoking what was underneath the fabric.

"Saha~s," Naruto had planned to whine, but instead sounded excited, which turned Sasuke on even more (Naruto could feel it).

Naruto started to moan, unable to control himself as he cramped up from pleasure, when Sasuke's left hand moved under the fabric of his boxers instead. Feeling the pleasure build up inside, Naruto suddenly turned over, not being able to take it anymore.

It had happened so fast, Sasuke didn't know what overcame him. Naruto had pulled down both their boxers with such speed and was now lying on top of Sasuke, kissing him everywhere that he liked the most, that Sasuke was sure he could have come right then. However, the foresight that Naruto was suddenly so willing was all that stopped him.

"Next week I'm yours, tonight your mine," Naruto whispered hoarsely. He moved over to get some things from their backpacks, handing it to Sasuke, before returning to the kissing, licking and sucking (which made it even harder for Sasuke to prepare him).

Being pleased at hearing the pleasurable sounds coming from Sasuke, Naruto smiled, and decided to make things easier for Sasuke to prepare.

Feeling Sasuke's fingers graze the right place, he moaned loudly, telling Sasuke he was ready. When Sasuke was done with his own preparations too, he wanted to turn Naruto over, but Naruto stayed on top, straddling him. Sasuke tried again, but Naruto was already positioning himself on Sasuke's erection. Unable to stop Naruto, or try turning him over, he let Naruto have his way.

Arching his hips up Sasuke felt sparks running up his spine, and cramped up as Naruto moved above him.

"Ah, 'ruto," he almost whispered, sending Naruto over the edge. He would soon follow.

-x-

"Glad you two did things safe," Kakashi said the next morning during breakfast.

Naruto turned red in an instant, and looked over to Kakashi angrily. "How do you know?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Why Naruto was so stupid to fall for that, _and answer_?

"You did it while Kakashi was there?" Sakura asked in disgust.

"No!" Naruto yelled, panic building up inside him.

Sasuke brought his hand up to his face, covering his eyes at Naruto's stupidity.

"It was awful, Sakura," Kakashi said.

"You weren't there!" Naruto yelled, sitting up on his knees, leaning on the table.

Sasuke had decided not to get involved in this, and picked up his chopsticks again to continue eating.

"I could hear it all the-"

"You were listening?" Naruto asked in horror, nearly having a heart attack.

"-way in the onsen," Kakashi softly finished his sentence.

All was silent for a moment, Kakashi and Sakura looking over to Naruto with raised eyebrows.

"You could never have heard anything from over there," Naruto said, sitting down gently as if nothing was wrong, but the blush betrayed his real feelings.

"Dobe."

"Shut up, teme." Naruto picked up his chopsticks and immediately stuffed his mouth full, which was a wise decision since he couldn't talk like that.

"I can't believe you two, even though Kakashi-sensei is sleeping in the same room?"

"Don't worry Sakura, the only reason he left was because he has his needs too," Sasuke said, though it was like he hadn't said a thing as he didn't look up or stop eating.

Sakura glanced over to Kakashi, who sat beside her, before shuffling away from him discretely.

"Ahum," Kakashi coughed. Then he got out his book and started reading.

Naruto's mouth fell open.

"As soon as we get back in Konoha I'm asking Tsunade-shishou to add a female member to our team," Sakura said. "I'm not sure if I can take this much longer. I need female support." She stood up and walked away, letting her unfinished food behind.

Naruto watched Sakura walk away all the way to the door. After she had closed it, he turned back to look at the table, looking over from his own empty plate to Sakura's. Seeing Kakashi was reading, and Sasuke was silently eating, Naruto saw no reason why not to take the good food from Sakura's plate. Leaning over the table he got the food he wanted on his own plate and sat down again, happily wringing his hands.

As Naruto was eating, Sasuke glanced over to Naruto. The blond still didn't notice when Sasuke was looking over to him like this, observing him.

Looking back, it seemed like he had been wasting away all those years without Naruto by his side. He had not wasted the years, nor regretted anything he had done, but he was just foolish not to have acted on his feelings sooner. However, it didn't matter anymore. Next week would be their first anniversary; already a year had passed since their first real kiss. A year since Naruto had told him he liked him too. It would also be half a year since Naruto had told him he loved him.

Sasuke was so happy, so overjoyed when he thought about how Naruto was his, his boyfriend, and how all his love was returned to him. He would never be able to put it into words. All he could do was smile.

When Naruto glanced over to Sasuke, seeing him smile, he returned the smile.

-The End-

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it; maybe review? ;)


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